The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-02
Popular Catch Words and Tkeir Origin
 (From the Baltimore Sum-


 (From the Baltimore Sum-
 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 Amer ica 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 catch-words 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 percentage. In the days of the old volunteer fire compa- nes, which in large cities were potent factors in local politics, the phrase "to run with the machine" came into conl- mon use, and it meant that a man so spoken of was identified with the polt- 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 ag itation on the action of the House of Parliament, said: Such is the opera ton of the machine as now established that no individual, be his character. ,;s, e,4n and his abilities what they 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 the England of Wellington's time there were no fire companies exerting any political influ ence
 That much overworked word "crank" first gained universal vogue in connec- ton with Guiteau's assassination of President Garfield, but it was long be. fore that applied by the late Don Piatt, who claimed to be it's inventor, to Hor- ace Greeley-the purpose of it being to liken the famous editor to the crank of hand d-organ, which is forever grind ing out the same old tunes. The word, as we have now come to apply 1t, means much more and worse; it im- plies a condition of mind verging upon insanity, and this has given rise to the erroneous notion that it has its origin in the German word "krank." The word "Dago,' now commonly applied to Italians all over the country, came originally from Louisiana. It at first referred only to people of Spanish ori- gin, but was later applied to Italians and Portuguese as well. The word is corruption of Diego" (James), which is a common Spanish name, San Diego being the patron saint of the Span iards.
 Another word of incessant employ ment in American speech is dude, with it's feminine complement "dudine" This may have scome to us from the old English word for clothes -tduds," in earlier times spelled dudes" Thackeray writes of one of his characters: Her dresses were wonderful, her bonnets marvellous. Few women could boast such dudes" Shakespeare in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor" writes of a "bucke of dudes' meaning basketful of clothes ready for washing. Its present-day literary currency dates from February, 1876, when the word appeared in Putnam's s Magazine. But famous New York | clubman, MT. Herman Oelrichs, claims the credit of first starting it as a popu- lar term of contempt or ridicuIe for an overdressed person. He claims that a youth of this type. who passed by the Union club window with mincing step, provoked himself and another cluhman to hum together anaccompan- iment to the youths walk, thus: "bu da, de. du du. du de-" and that he re- l marked, Good enough. Dude is the proper name for it,'' and that thus the word was born.