The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1907-03-16
WORDS made in
THIS COUNTRY

IlblO UUUNl MI
4 AMERICANS ARE GREAT iNvEN.
TORS OF IANouAGE-coln
THEM WHEN NEEDED
Many Of Them are Good Fits and
Become Permanent Additions 70
Our Common Tonsue-Why This
Government is Called Uncle Sam.
Tammany Named After an In.
dian Characterization Of skedad.
die and skidoo-piekens First Made
Use Of 2s-Resus and Runeomhe-
Graft and o. x. -Toddy and Polly.
] The manufacturing instinct of the
American has not been confined to the
material thing Of life. When he has
needed a word he has made 1t, Just as
he has invariably made other things
that he wanted. Sometimes he graft.
ed the bud Of his thought on to some
foreign stem, sometimes he took for
eign words and acclimated them, and
sometimes he gave proof OF gIorl.
Gus amount of independence and made
his words, as the worli was made.
"out of nothing"
Have you heard the reason why the
American government Is called "Uncle
Sam?' 1t was because one Samuel
Wilson, government inspector of beef
and pork at Troy, N. Y, in 1879. had
way Of marking barrels with his
own initials and .'U. s." meaning
United States. A workman who was
something of wag saw the letters,
and facetiously remarked that he sup.
posed they stood for "uncle Sam"
The joke was retoll and retold until
II became common saying, and the
general government has been so nick.
named for nearly hundred years.
Over a century ago the United
States was also known to England
and other foreign countries as Broth.
er Jonathan" Why? Because George
Washington was very greatly nfiuenc.
ed by the opinions of Jonathan Turn.
bull. and had way of saying: well,
] must consult Brother Jonathan" be.
fore he made decisions. The term
became local, and then drifted to its
general use.
For an Indian Chief.
Tammany, the name adopted by al
Democratic club in New York in1S71.
had been used for nearly hundred
years. 1t was the anglicizatlon of the
name OF wise old Tamane, an Indian
chief who lived in Pennsylvania, and
whose name had been borrowed by
Continental troops when they were
casting about for an American saint
TO f1aunt In the face of the British
enemy, who had "St. George" on their
banners. When the Pennsylvania
troops acclaimed "St. Tamanend'' many
other colonials took it up, and he ap-
Reared later In all American alma.
macs in the form of his canonization.
A day was even set apart as Indian
Saints Day" He was recognized in
half jest as the "tutelar saint of the
American colonies" The Virginia Ga.
zette OF May 3, 1774, contains an ac.
count of celebration In honor of the |
fine old chief who afterwards lent his |
name to the political club that now
immortallZes him,
skedaddle and skidoo.
"Skedaddle" was bequeathed to the
American vocabulary by war cor.
respondent from the London Times. |
who came over to report the battle of
Bull Run. He watched the very hur.
ried and undignified manner in which
the Union soldiers left the field, ana
applied to this route the term skedad-
die. 1t was a catchy kind OF word,
and, though its origin IS traced to a
dignifiei position in the old Irish Bible
1t retains the popularity given It in
Its new meaning. An offshot of this
word is the now popular "skldoo."
Dickens Invented 1873"
The true story of the origin of the
slang use Of twenty-three" is a clas-
sic. or at least near classic 1t came
from the works of Charles Dickens.
In "The Tale of Two Cities" the hero
takes the place OF another man con-
demned TO die under the knife of the
suillotine. About the dreadful place
sit terrible women knitting a record
OF the number of lives sacrificed to
the sharp blade. AS Sydney Cartons
head rolls from the knife to the basket
the woman knit twenty three" Mr..
Dickens made sentence-a para.
graph-of that word with great dra-
matte effect. When the story of the
book was staged under the title 1.-THE