Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-04-10
POPULAR PHRA SES.
ORIGIN OF SOME OF THE CATCH
WORDS THAT EVERYBODY USES.
We Have Taken Some From the English
and Invented Very Many -eives-How
We Came to Adopt some Of the Phrases
which Are In General Use.

We Came To Adopt some Of the Phrases
which Are In General Use.
| Mention has been recently made Of
the disputed origin of the word tee
total. claimed by two inventors, one
| living in England and the other in
America, and each of whom may have
hit upon the word independently and
for the different reasons assigned. To
curious minded persons who like TO
| know tho why's, whens and wherefores
| Ot everything the origin of popular
catchwords and figures of speech is an
interesting subject
The word machine, A" as we use it po-
| iiically is another which, like tee
total, " is Of doubtful parentage. In the
days of the old volunteer fire companies,
which III large cities were potent factors
in local politics. the phrase "to run
wit. the machine" came into common
use, and 1t meant that man so spoken
of was identified with the political CO.
| terie Of the fire company with which he
trained. The famous Boss Tweed began
his career in New York running with
| II.
| Yet the term as we now employ il was
used in Engl land long before. The Duke
of Wellington in letter TO a friend in
1916 deploring the increasing influence
| of popular agitation on the action of the
houses Of parliament, said: Such is the
| operation Of the machine as now estab-
lished that no individual, be his char
| acter, conduct in antecedent circum-
stances and his abilities what they may,
can have any personal influence in gen
eral " We may have derived our term
1.-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 intiu
ence.
That much overworked word crank"
| gained universal vogue in connection
| with Guiteaus assassination of Presi-
| dent G arfeld but it was long before
that applied by the late Don Piatt, who
claimed to be its inventor TO Horace
Greeley. the purpose of it being TO liken
the famous editor to the crank of a hand
organ, which is forever grinding out the
same old tunes. The word, as we have
now come to apply it, means much more
and worse. 1t implies 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, where
%
Spanish origin. but was later applied to
! Italians and Portuguese as well. The
word is corruption of diego"
| (James). which is common Spanish
name, San Diego being the patron saint
of the Spaniards.
| Another word Of incessant employ
ment in American speech is dude,
with its feminine complement, "du.
! dine. This may have come to us from
the old English word tor clothes
"duds, " in earlier times spelled
| dudes -
Thackeray writes Of one of his charac-
| tiers: Her dresses were wonderful, her
| bonnets marvellous. Few women could
| boast such dudes - Shakespeare, in
THE Merry Wives OF Windsor, - writes
Of "bucke Of dudes" meaning bas-
ketful of clothes ready for washing. It's
| present day literary currency dates from
| February, 1876, when the word appear
ed in Putnam S Maya zine. But a famous
| New York clubman, Mr.. Hermann
Oelrichs. claims the credit Of first start
ing it as a popular term of contempt or
ridicule for an overdressed person. He
claims that youth of this type who
passed by the Union club window with
a mincing step provoked himself and
another clubman 70 hum together an ac
! compartment 10 the youth S 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 lingo" and "jingoism"
are also Of disputed derivation. We all
know about the English music hall song
which set the word going with new
meaning in 1877, but the original coin
age of the term by jingo" is quite
| doubtful. In the Basque language the
| word jingo means God, and it Is widely
believed that by jingo!' was form
of oath with which the Basque sailors
| fami liarized the English sailors and,
through them, all English speaking peo-
pie But others believe the word is a
| corruption of St Gingoulph. 1t is one
of the oddities of popular wordmaking
that the term "jingoism, as now used,
| Is complete travesty of the sentiment
of the song from which il was taken. A
| jingo, either in England or America, is
| now set down as man spelling for a
| fight, eager for war at any cost. But the
| original music hall song, with the lingo
chorus, expressed exactly the opposite
| sentiment--a desire for peace. 1t began
with 1--WE don't want TO fight, and its
] fiercest war note was struck in the dec
laration that if they had to do what they
would rather not, they had plenty of
men, ships and money.
Speaking of Brother Jonathan, "
there is no doubt about its origin
When General Washington went TO Mas
sachusetts to take command of the Revo-