The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-19
cURIOSITIES OF LANGUAGE.
WORDS ONCE GOOD ENGLISH NOW
RECKONED Rad.

peare. in the Ancient Classics and
on Monuments.
From the s.. Louis Globe-Democ~a--
The professors and tlctlcuary-rn makers
and other people whose business it IS 20
tell us how we ought 20 speak ana Wri-e
long ago agreed thar slang is vsrr L1i-
proper and wrong. and -ha- nobody ought.
under any circunls stances. 20 ust tt. Ia-s
piece Of advice is very kind Of them. bah
like a good many more % rhe.r s1sses-
tons. goes for naught. for. inspi-e az che
well meant warning that slang IS rude,
and coarse and Low. and that no person
of education and refinement should employ
#. people Of all grades and classes OF so
ciety continue TO use IL just as though
the learned men VINO assume the manage
ment of our mother tongue have said moth
ing at all on the subject. The professors
may rage. the photographers may mag
inc vain things. but the people go on us
ing such words and expressions as to
them seem must appropriate to express
their ideas. jut as though there were no
such persons in existence as learned pro-
fessors or wise makers of dictionaries, so
the latter find themselves not only in
hopeless minority, but as completely ignored
as though they were nonresident. To all
intents and purposes, SO far as the max
ing Of speech Of the people is concerned.
they are nonenuties, for the people pay
no attention TO them. and the most they
are able to do is to record the usages that
are made. not only without their consent,
but even against their stoutest protests.
50 there must be use for slang. II must
have a value and be of service to some
body or il would not survive the general
almost unanimous, denunciation Of people
whom the world has been sedulously train
ed to respect. Ii is very little trouble to
discover ia what its utility consists, for
this lies almost on the surface. As gem
eral thing the vocabulary Of the average
man is quite limited, and as a consequence
of this limitation he is often forced to
make one word or expression to do the
work Of several To the man Of ordinary
education and attachments. the selection
of words which exactly fit the ideas he
has to express is an impOssibility for he
has not enough to afford an extensive
choice, and, even If he had, he is far from
disposed to take the trouble TO make II.
So he compels one word to DO the work
Of many others. which would doubtless do
would not use if he did, for the simple
reason that it is too much trouble To such
a person a slang expression, especially
If it be Of an adjective nature and super
lative in its character, is a perfect godsend
for it enables him TO be forcible without
the labor of hunting for forcible words,
and, best Of all, by those who use 1t them
selves and would not probably so well un-
derstand any. other expression. Thus, for
instance. such a man sees a painting
which he considers in many points, if not
in ALL superior TO any other painting
he has ever boheld. He wishes TO
bestow upon It the highest praise his vo-
cabulary viii permit. Does he bother his
head with the chiaroscuro, or the pers-
pective, or the drawing, or the foreshort-
ening or the pigments, or the coloring, or
the soul of the artist which shines from
the canvass? Not at all. All these to him
are bit sound and fury, and his acquaint-
ances would laugh at him for using them,
for they know that he knows no more Of
the meaning than themselves. He says.
simply. "Its out az sight" and for him
and for nine-tenths of the people he is ac-
quainted with that exhausts the subject.
So. If be happens 20 be an authority among
his set his friends accept his judgment
and &c and sec the painting because he
says ITS out of sight" and they. too,
pronounce it "out of sight" and as for the
NNitAdSf VI AtNnHlEdi AllAttASAh lttN utltll-
er know nor care anything about it, 1t is
beyond them. Their slang takes the place
OF it and answers the purpose, so why
should they care to learn it2
The question In what does slang consist
is much mere difficult to answer than
that in regard to its uses. Using word
in two senses does not make it slang, for
If it did, and slang were prohibited, tie
most Of the glorious imagery of our
tongue would be banished from use, for
there are few words which are restricted
to but one employment, and the life Of
imagery is the use of a word in some
novel or unaccustomed sense Nor does
even its common or general employment
in sense foreign to its original meaning
make it slang, for every hour men use
words with a significance entirely foreign
to that which they originally bore or even
to that which they bore only generation
Of two ago. Moon struck" is not slang
though its meaning is now entirely dir
ferent from that which was attached to 1t
in the days when astrology was a serious
study Loony' is not, properly speak
ing, slang expression, though in its pri-
mai significance it had reference to that
bird whose cry so closely resembled the
laughter Of a mailman as to give the
creature name as disrespectful as 1t was
abbreviated. A word, any word does not
become slang, however, when it is used
on any and all occasions to express any
and all sorts Of ideas, when, in season
and out of season it is made TO do all
manner Of drudgery; when, in short, it
becomes, like the boys iackknife a tool
of all work, and is called into play to
answer all sorts of purposes. Slang. like
profanity, is the vocabulary of ignor-
anee; like the single suit of the impecu-
NOUS, 1t is worn on every occasion. no
matter whether appropriate or not; like
Robinson Cruso's single implement it
does all kinds of work. In most cases X
is thus inappropriate sometimes singu-
larry so. but that fact does not in the
least disturb the equanimity of him who
employs it, and rarely of the listeners. for
both are commonly habituated to absurd
tiles of this kind. and seldom notice them.
Yet the incongruities Of slang word are
sometimes SO giaring as to provoke won,
der at its employment. When for in
stance, a few months ago, the word
bum" was in common use to denote any
thing bad, it was employed to describe
everything that was not agreeable TO the
user, from the sermon the Sunday before
TO his dinner yesterday in a cheap restau-
rant
AS a rule, the slang word or expression
began life under respectable auspices,
very often in good society, but like a de-
general son If a vvOrfh1r sire rvarf 70 49,.