The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-19
EVERY SOCIAL LEVEL
HAS ITS OWN SLANG
Bishop Of Oxford Used "Squint'
and Luther Wasn't
Guiltless.
NOT ALWAYS GLOW TALK"
LOndoners Wonder Now Where
Their Word "Swank"
Came From.
Special Coryespondenc. TO THE SON

SpsctdI correspondence TO THE SON,
LONDON. July 10.-Everybody knows, or
thinks, he knows, exactly what slang IL,
but few would be able to give offhand a
definition in two or three words. To say.
as one dictionary does. that 1t Is low
talk or "a language OF the lower classes
Is Incorrect for Society. with big "S."
has its own characteristic slang.
The army. navy. Stock Exchange, even
the theological colleges. could compile
fairly large dictionary of their several
slang terms The fact Is slang Is a sort
OF irregular verbal coinage which GER
tain sections of society find useful-in
some cases interesting merely as n relief
from the starched language of academic
respectability. as when the Bishop OF OK
ford horrlfed William Cory by saying
Let me have n squirt at" the plans OF n
spire which the Bishop OF Salisbury was
contemplating.
Oxonians Add SER
At oxford. as most persons know. the
undergraduates have a curious custom OF
shortening words and lacking on "er'' at
the end. Breakfast Is brekker. lecture II
lekker. sitting room is sitter, bedroom Is
bedder. rugger and soccer are Rugby and
hssOClatlou lootDhIl. Jesus IOlleRe IOr
some unknown reason In still further cor
rupted. becoming Jsggers. and the Mar
tyrs Memorial. erected In memory Of Rid
ley and Latimer, becomes the Mariners
Memugger.
"wekker" Is n waistcoat and the morn
ing roll call Is the "roller."
Money Is naturally the subject OF much
slang. and Is variously known as blunt"
"oof," "rhino." "chink" Every express
~ 1xyt o.
Coinage has its slang Technology. a six
pence being a tanner-probably from the
gypsy word "tano" little--a shilling a
bob" sovereign "quid' or "a thick
'un."
A slang word which has lately over
run English speaking countries is
"swank." and there has been much dis
cussion about It's derivation. The word
itself Is old, having been used for genera
lions in Scotland, with the meaning OF
supple. lissom." springy. apt for work
Burns uses II in this sense. But the cur
rent slang meaning is ito swagger. boast.
and some etymologists derive 1t from the
German "schwanken," to waver, sway
from side to side. as person with
| staggering gait.
This. however. Is rather improbable. fol
"schwanken" has for the most part Other
connotations, rather in the direction oil
| lightly lowering than OF staggering.
II is more likely that "swank" In a
composite word. invented by compoundinl
| "swagger" with rank" pink" thigf
| jinks). pink" (of condition., or some sucl
word on the principle OF Lewis Carroll'i
portmanteau words snake and sharl
matchmaking in 1.-THE Hunting OF thu
Shark"
| Language OF Thieves.
Thieves have a large slang vocabular,
because they find II useful to have n Ian
| guage OF their own. In Henley AND
| Farmers dictionary tho slang synonym
| for "thier or "swindler" occupy three
closely printed columns. Police magis
trates become linguistic Experts In thii
department
The late Montagu Williams unce aske'
a prisoner how he had spent some none
which ne admitted having stolen Tn
reply was: II 'ad pint O. mahogany
two doorsteps and a stinker, that was
| steever: and then n London mystery ant
a slice of spotted plain and that's how
spent the sprat" tStout, slices OF bread
penny cigar. threepence SAUSAGE, curren
loaf. loot.) 81 understand" said VIII
Jams "seven days"
| II has been said that there WIS n
slang In any European language until IN
middle OF the fifteenth century, whe'
Francois vllion wrote his ballads in
Partisan thieves lingo. But this Is not {
be taken very literally. for slang mus
always have existed more or less. cen
fury after Villon n slang dictionary wa
comniled by a man from whom we Shout
hardly have expected such piece OF wor
no less a person than Martin Luther
His dictionary was confined to thieves
slang, and one rather wonders where h
got all his information.
Much OF the slang OF one Renerato
becomes current speech in the next, an
II is interesting to read the illumination
OF old time literary purists against word
which to them were IRREGULAR or uncoutf
but which are respectable now.