The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-20
USE OF SLANG COMMON
1T Is NOW ALMOST PART OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
College Boys and Girls Indulge I'm Its
Use to a Great Extent-Slang
Words I'm Use.


but is sometimes highly figurative and ex-
pressive- There is more in slang than APP
pears on the surface, and one can hardly
utter a sentence without using a slang
word or phrase CT some sort. Slang even
enters religious services and during
prayer meeting the other night in one of
the leading churches, after warm ex-
hortation. it was ended by the speaker say
ing. very emphatically. cit will be so. and
don't you forget it, There is an art in
Singing slang" to embellish a converse
ton and there is science in the classical
ton of slang. Authorities on the usage or
slang have varied ideas on the subject, but
are universal in admitting that ii is some
times very useful. and slang word often
forcibly brings out the meaning of a con-
versation where an ordinary word would
not.
Among college girls and boys especially
is slang coined, as they have the whole
outside world to draw on and they enrich
IL by slang phrases peculiarly their own.
Some of these are original and striking and
some only vulgarly humorous. A college
freshman. during his first visit home, as
tonished his friends by telling them of ''go-
ing TO his hashhouse, sitting down to the
grub pile and feeding his face well before
he sunk his lunchhooks into the pie" OF
course, he has overdone what he might
have expressed in the few words, 81 went
to my boarding house. sat down TO a meal
and ate a good deal before 1 reached the
pie" Slang. when used for brevity is not
Objectionable, but it is more often used
from force of habit. Two women were re-
one woman surprised the other by asking
her to tell her where to go to buy lid"
The woman, thinking her friend wanted
stove lid. or lid for cooking utensil. di-
rected her to the basement of a department
store. The woman looked around in bewil-
derment for the usual display of hats in a
millinery department and remarked laugh
ingly, why, / meant hat" All girls de-
light in "trade-lasts," meaning an ex-
change of compliments where she trades
last" and doesn't give you one at all un-
less you tell her something very nice you
have heard of her. She will perhaps, If she
is up TO date, say isn't that woozy?"
You might think she meant something dis
agreeable. but she means quite the reverse,
something very delightful She never likes
''slams;" they are the opposite of compli-
ments. When a girl wants to say some
thing PARTICULARLY nice about another girl or
gown she says it is squatchetry," and
ance she she says Svs she IS tecRy III Notsbe
among slang phrases is the freshmans de-
scr1ption or a servant girl as a tx. m.,"
meaning kitchen mechanic; then he calls
the female medical student the hen
medic" Young women delight in exagger-
alton, and where others would be content
with the phrase, Il should SMILE she says
q ,tv1ys ot,o
smoker to remark" She says sit is a
crime" when she means it is a shame, and
when she is taken by surprise she says
wouldn't that cook YOU" or "wouldn't
that jar you,'' or doesn't that make you
tired, or weary?" all of which are common
expressions of slang. She speaks of girl
devoted to study or candy as philosophy
fiend." or chocolate fiend," as the case
may be, and when she is introduced to a
person whom she considers fowery i'm
speech she says he is ''skyrockety." When
she meets a friend who fiatters her she
calls him .jollier' and says he is
"lamby," meaning that he is smooth
Chew the rag is said to have originated
in the nursery practice of giving child
sweetened rag to chew. When one uses
the expression to play Gagged game" he
means to be very careful, and when he
says cough up" he means to pay over
money. When one girl tells another that
her friend is regular shark she means
that he is brilliant, and If she says he is a
"shark stills he is exceptionally So
When man says another man is
shark" he infers that he is keen, shrewd
business man.
1t might also be said that the more
strange and unfamiliar and uncouth the
slang the greater the liberties taken. Ger
tainly some slang expressions imply the
same degree of familiarity that humping a
friend between the shoulders instead il bid
ding him good morning implies. One au-
thority for the origin of slang credits 1t to
a Dutch general, noted for his abusive and
exaggerated epithets when he reproved the
men under his command. Another author
ity says Ii originated from the cant words
or jargon used by thieves and the vaga-
bond classes generally, as early as the mid
die of the last century. 1t was included by
Crosse in his Dictionary of the Vulgar
Tongue" published in 17S5. But 1t was
many years before 1t was allowed a place
in any vocabulary of English speech that
confined itself to the language of good
of "Red Gauntlet" which appeared in 1924
when using the word, felt the necessity of
defining Ii, and his definition shows not
only that IL was generally unknown but
that il had not then begun to depart at all
from it's original sense. In the thirteenth
chapter Of that work one of the characters
is represented as trying to overhear con-
versation, but what did actually reach his
ears was disguised completely by the
use of cant words and the thieves Latin
called slang. that even when he caught the
words he found himself far as ever from
the sense of their conversation. No one
who is now accustomed to speak slang or
to speak of the users of Ii would think of
connecting it with anything peculiar to the
language of thieves. Yet II is clear from
this one quotation that the complete
change of meaning which the term has un-
dergone has taken place within a good deal
less than sixty years.
There is slang attached to certain profess
sions and classes of society, such as racing
slang. college slang. club slang, literary
slang and political slang, and 1t enters
more or less into all colloquial speech: into
literature newspapers, political addresses
and is apt to break out in serious CONVEX
sation.
One often hears a person in speaking of
some one who has died refer to him as hav-
ing kicked the bucket" or hoped the
twig:" rag-time slang has gained much
popularity recently and is heard among the
young boys and newsboys. Some of IL is
quite incomprehensible. and unless one is
familiar with ii it is quite hard to under
stand it's meaning.