Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-03-16
SOME NEW WORDS
AND THEIR POTENCY IN Ex-
PRESTON OF IDEAS.

Some Of High and Some Of Low Origin" Ga
reused" Owes Its Paternity to Sir Walter
Scott. while " "SkedaddIe" Originated in the
Army Canteen-" SkewassIed' is Another
Word Coined on the Battlefield. and " Mari
tai has Somewhat Changed Its Meaning
from Its Adaptation by an Eminent Woman -
"lessless." Newborn to Indicate the su
Perlative Of Minuteness, Awaits at the Thresh
old Of Public Opinion.
Chicago Tribune.
While learned professors in the Uni
versities OF Chicago are curtailing and
abEreviating many of our best words,
and looking thru the dictionaries for
others from which they may lop su-
perfuous vOwels, consonants or sylla.
bles, the London Academy is response
bic for new word that is coming into
dangerously facile use. That word is
"birrelling," and one must have ma.
tive burr on the tongue to give it
the full value of correct pronuncia.
ton. 1t means literary chatter, and
Is named after Augustine Birrell,
whose pleasing phrases in "Obiter
Dicta" birrelled into popular fame
deep ell 1ugh to contribute new verb
to the English language. The Criteri-
on brands the word as an "unfit" and
objects to its being adopted on the
ground that it fiatters the book and
its author beyond their just deserts.
1t looks when written like word in
wild West story of a cattle ranch and
roundup, but pronounced it fasci-
mates the tongue with the magnetic
charm of syllables. Welcome the
coming, speed the parting guest. AS
old words 60 out, new ones come in,
and our polyglot language has large
reserve to draw on, which the people
will do without consulting lexicon or
educator.
When Sir Walter Raleigh said,
"Some OF our captains garoused of
vino until they were reasonably pleas
ant" he made one word palliate a
common ofIense, and created n com.
plete phrase to sustain it. During
the civil war words dropped into being
that have since been incorporated in
dictionaries for national use. A COL
lege professor, an American, who was
abroad during the war, returned at its
close, and on the steamer bringing
him home he became engaged in n
controversy with an Englishman who
had visited this country the previous
year. OH the origin of the word "ske-
daddle." The professor insisted that
no such word existed, and the English
man insisted that he had heard it
used constantly during his previous
visit. He finally offered to subs:anti-
ate his declaration by good dinner,
the professor did the same, and seve-
raj times referred jocularly to the
feast he was sure he would have at the
expense OF the loser. But scarcely
had he landed on American soil when
he heard the baggagemen ordering
their drivers to skedaddlc with their
loads, bootblacks asked him to let
them shine his boots before he ske-
daddled home, and the word which
had sprung into existence in his ab-
sence seemed to be in everybody's
mouth. After trailing through the
language like II vocal pyrotechnic it
vanished into the limbo of semi-obse-
lete words.
Major w. F. drummer, who was in
Company A of the Forty-fifth Illinois
during the civil war, tells good story
of the coming of word by member
of his company, a private soldier
named Gill. This man, who was n
German, was fierce fighter, and had
been wounded at Fort Donelson. At
the battle of Shiloh, while standing
with his side to the enemy that he
might fire with better advantage, a
mimic ball went through his chest.
His colonel saw him and said:
"What are you dong here, Gill?
Get back into the firing line"
Gill, according to Major drummer,
had manner of speech that was Pc
culiar to himself. In his drawling
way he answered:
"Guess not, colonel, guess not"
"Why notP shouted the colonel.
"Get up and 60 back to the firing
line, or I'll strike you with my
swordw
Gill then drawled out: "Pm
wounded, Colonel"
The colonel, still thinking the man
was skulking, asked angrily where he
was wounded, and Gill replied that he
was hit in the breast. Colonel Malt
by, seeing no sign of a wound, asked
where the ball had hit him, and Gill,
pointing to his breast outlined the
route the ball had taken.
"That there ball." he drawled,
"just went skewaggling this Away"
Sure enough, the mimic ball had
struck him at the right side of his
breast, making a fearful diagonal
wound; of that soldiers courage and
fortitude little remains to honor his
memory, but the word skewaggling"
is embalmed in the literature OF war.
Few words have more interesting
nd heroic origin.