The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-11
- SOME UORD BIOG RAPHIES
The History of Few Verbal Waifs That lIavs Had Careers of Usefulness.
 (From the Baltimore Sun)

lIava Had Careers of Usefulness.
 (From the Baltimore Sun)
 Mention has been recently made of
 the disputed origin of the word "teeto-
 tal," claimed by two inventors, one liv- ing in England and the other in Ameri-
 ca,and each of whom may have hit
 upon the word independently and for the different reasons assigned. TO
 such curious-minded persons as like to
 know the why's, whens and wherefores
 of everything, the origin of popular
 catehwords and figures of speech is an interesting subject.
 The word machine" as we use it po-
 litically, is another which, like "teeto-
 tal," is of doubtful parentage. In the days of the old volunteer fire compa-
 nies, which in large cities were potent factors ill local politics, the phrase ito run with the machine" came into com
 mon use, and it meant that man so
 spoken of was identified with the polit- ical coterie of the fire company with which he trained. The famous Boss Tweed began his career in New York
 running with the machine" as a vol unteer fireman. Yet the term as we
 now employ it was used in England long before. The Duke of Wellington in a letter to a friend in 1S45, deploring the increasing influence of popular agi- tation on the action, of the House of Parliament, said Such is the opera tion of the machine as now established that no individual, be his character, conduct in antecedent circumstances, and his abilities what thsy may, can have any personal influence in gene ral.' We may have derived our term
 "the machine" from our old volunteer fire company days, but in Wellington's time there were no fire companies ex-
 erting any political influence.
 That much overworked word ''crank' first gained universal vogue in connec- ton with Guiteaus assassination of
 President Garfield, but it was long be- fore that applied by the late Don Piatt, who claimed to be its inventor, to Hor-
 ace Greeley, the purpose of it being to liken the famous editor to the crank of a hand organ, which is forever grind ing out the same old tunes. The word,
 as we have now come to apply it,
 means much more and worse; it implies a condition of mind verging upon in
 sanity, and this has given rise to the erroneous notion that it has it's origin in the German word 'krank." The
 word ''Dago," now commonly applied to Italians all over the country came originally from Louisiana, where it at first referred only to people of Spanish
 origin, but was later applied to Italians and Portuguese as well, The word is a corruption of "D1ego" (James), a. com
 mon Spanish name.
 Another word of incessant employ- ment in American speech is "dude,''
 with it's feminine compliment ''dudine" This may have come to us from the old English word for clothes-"duds,' in earlier times spelled ''dudes.' Thacke- ray writes of one of his characters: Her dresses were, wonderful, her bon nets marvellous. Few women could
 boast such dudes, Shakespeare, in 1 'The Merry Wives of Windsor" writes of "bucke of s''--meaning a bas-
 ketful of clothes ready for washing It's present day literary currency dates 1 from February, 1876, when the word ap- | peared in Putnam's Magazine But a | famous New York club man, MT. Her.
 man Oelfichs, claims the credit of | starting 1t as a popular term of con- tempt or ridlcule for an over-dressed | person. He claims that youth of this | type who passed by the Union club l windows with a mincing step, provoked | himself and another club man to hum | together an accompaniment to the | youths walk, thus: "Du da, de, du du, du de- and that he remarked, Good enough. Dude is the proper name for | it," and that thus the word was born. | The words "Jingo" and "Jingoism"
 just now at the end of everybody's | tongue and pen, are also of disputed