The American Language
between /decent/ and /indecent/.
In their vocabularies of opprobrium and profanity English and
Americans diverge sharply. The English /rotter/ and /blighter/ are
practically unknown in America, and there are various American
equivalents that are never heard in England. A /guy/, in the American
vulgate, simply signifies a man; there is not necessarily any
disparaging significance. But in English, high or low, it means one
who is making a spectacle of himself. The derivative verb, /to guy/,
is unknown in English; its nearest equivalent is /to spoof/, which is
unknown in American. The average American, I believe, has a larger
vocabulary of profanity than the average Englishman, and swears a good
deal more, but he attempts an amelioration of many of his oaths by
softening them to forms with no apparent meaning. /Darn/
(=/dern/=/durn/) for /damn/ is apparently of English origin, but it is
heard ten thousand times in America to once in England. So is
/dog-gone/. Such euphemistic written forms as /damphool/ and /damfino/
are also far more common in this country. /All-fired/ for
/hell-fired/, /gee-whiz/ for /Jesus/, /tarnal/ for /eternal/,
/tarnation/ for /damnation/, /cuss/ for /curse/, /goldarned/ for
/God-damned/, /by gosh/ for /by God/ and /great Scott/ for /great God/
are all Americanisms; Thornton has traced /all-fired/ to 1835,
/tarnation/ to 1801 and /tarnal/ to 1790. /By golly/ has been found in
English literature so early as 1843, but it probably originated in
America; down to the Civil War it was the characteristic oath of the
negro slaves. Such terms as /bonehead/, /pinhead/ and /boob/ have been
invented, perhaps, to take the place of the English /ass/, which has a
flavor of impropriety in America on account of its identity in sound
with the American pronunciation of /arse/.[42] At an earlier day /ass/
was always differentiated by making it /jackass/. Another word that is
improper in America but not in England is /tart/. To an Englishman the
word connotes sweetness, and so, if he be of the lower orders, he may
apply [Pg130] it to his sweetheart. But to the American it signifies
a prostitute, or, at all events, a woman of too ready an amiability.
But the most curious disparity between the profane vocabulary of the
two tongues is presented by /bloody/. This word is entirely without
improper significance in America, but in England it is regarded as the
vilest of indecencies. The sensation produced in London when George
Bernard Shaw put it into the mouth of a woman character in his play,
"Pygmalion," will be remembered. "The interest in the first English
performance," said the /New York Times/,[43] "centered in the
heroine's utterance of this banned word. It was waited for with
trembling, heard shudderingly, and presumably, when the shock
subsided, interest dwindled." But in New York, of course, it failed to
cause any stir. Just why it is regarded as profane and indecent by the
English is one of the mysteries of the language. The theory that it
has some blasphemous reference to the blood of Christ is disputed by
many etymologists. It came in during the latter half of the
seventeenth century, and at the start it apparently meant no more than
"in the manner of a blood," /i. e./, a rich young roisterer of the
time. Thus, /bloody drunk/ was synonymous with as /drunk as a lord/.
The adjective remained innocuous for 200 years. Then it suddenly
acquired its present abhorrent significance. It is regarded with such
aversion by the English that even the lower orders often substitute
/bleeding/ as a euphemism.
So far no work devoted wholly to the improper terms of English and
American has been published, but this lack may be soon remedied by a
compilation made by a Chicago journalist. It is entitled "The Slang of
Venery and Its Analogues," and runs to two large volumes. A small
edition, mimeographed for private circulation, was issued in 1916. I
have examined this work and found it of great value. If the influence
of comstockery is sufficient to prevent its publication in the United
States, as seems likely, it will be printed in Switzerland.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It should be noted that /mews/ is used only in the larger cities.
In the small towns /livery-stable/ is commoner. /Mews/ is quite
unknown in America save as an occasional archaism.
[2] Sometimes /whiffle-tree/.
[3] The latter has crept into American of late. I find it on p. 58 of
The United States at War, a pamphlet issued by the Library of
Congress, 1917. The compiler of this pamphlet is a savant bearing the
fine old British name of Herman H. B. Meyer.
[4] /Living-room/, however, is gradually making its way in England. It
was apparently suggested, in America, by the German /wohnzimmer/.
[5] This form survives in the American term /city-stock/, meaning the
bonds of a municipality. But government securities are always called
/bonds/.
[6] /Cf./ A Glossary of Colloquial Slang and Technical Terms in Use in
the Stock Exchange and in the Money Market, by A. J. Wilson, London,
1895.
[7] Or /bailiffs/.
[8] But he is /run/ by his party organization. /Cf./ The Government of
England, by A. Lawrence Lowell; New York, 1910, vol. ii, p. 29.
[9] Until very recently no self-respecting American newspaper reporter
would call himself a /journalist/. He always used /newspaper man/, and
referred to his vocation, not as a profession, but as the newspaper
/business/. This old prejudice, however, now seems to be breaking
down. /Cf./ Don't Shy at Journalist, /The Editor and Publisher and
Journalist/, June 27, 1914.
[10] /Cf./ a speech of Senator La Follette, /Congressional Record/,
Aug. 27, 1917, p. 6992.
[11] According to the New International Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. (/Art./
Apartment House), the term /flat/ "is usually in the United States
restricted to apartments in houses having no elevator or hall
service." In New York such apartments are commonly called /walk-up
apartments/. Even with the qualification, /apartment/ is better than
/flat/.
[12] Canoeing was introduced into England by John MacGregor in 1866,
and there is now a Royal Canoe Club. In America the canoe has been
familiar from the earliest times, and in Mme. Sarah Kemble Knight's
diary (1704) there is much mention of /cannoos/. The word itself is
from an Indian dialect, probably the Haitian, and came into American
through the Spanish, in which it survives as /canoa/.
[13] "An act was passed to prohibit playing /nine-pins/; as soon as
the law was put in force, it was notified everywhere, '/Ten-pins/
played here.'"--Capt. Marryat: Diary in America, vol. iii, p. 195.
[14] "The term /chapel/," says Joyce, in English as We Speak It in
Ireland, "has so ingrained itself in my mind that to this hour the
word instinctively springs to my lips when I am about to mention a
Catholic place of worship; and I always feel some sort of hesitation
or reluctance in substituting the word /church/. I positively could
not bring myself to say, 'Come, it is time now to set out for
/church/' It must be either /mass/ or chapel."
[15] Certain dissenters, of late, show a disposition to borrow the
American usage. Thus the /Christian World/, organ of the English
Congregationalists, uses /Episcopal/ to designate the Church of
England.
[16] So long ago as the 70's certain Jews petitioned the publishers of
Webster's and Worcester's dictionaries to omit their definitions of
the verb /to jew/, and according to Richard Grant White, the publisher
of Worcester's complied. Such a request, in England, would be greeted
with derision.
[17] But nevertheless he uses /begotten/, not /begot/.
[18] This specimen is from the /Congressional Record/ of Dec. 11,
1917: "I do not like to be butting into this /proposition/, but I look
upon this postoffice business as a purely business /proposition/." The
speaker was "Hon" Homer P. Snyder, of New York. In the /Record/ of
Jan. 12, 1918, p. 8294, /proposition/ is used as a synonym for state
of affairs.
[19] Already in 1855 Bristed was protesting that /to fix/ was having
"more than its legitimate share of work all over the Union." "In
English conversation," he said, "the panegyrical adjective of all work
is /nice/; in America it is /fine/." This was before the adoption of
/jolly/ and its analogues, /ripping/, /stunning/, /rattling/, etc.
[20] In the Appendix to the Final Report of the Royal Commission on
Venereal Diseases, London, 1916, p. iv., I find the following: "/Mr./
C. J. Symonds, F.R.C.S., M.D.; /Mr./ F. J. McCann, F.R.C.S., M.D.;
/Mr./ A. F. Evans, F.R.C.S". /Mr./ Symonds is consulting surgeon to
Guy's Hospital, /Mr./ McCann is an eminent London gynecologist, and
/Mr./ Evans is a general surgeon in large practise. All would be
called /Doctor/ in the United States.
[21] Among the curious recipients of this degree have been Gumshoe
Bill Stone, Uncle Joe Cannon and Josephus Daniels. Billy Sunday, the
evangelist, is a D.D.
[22] /Congressional Record/, May 16, 1918, p. 7147.
[23] /Vide/ his annual reports, printed at Sing Sing Prison.
[24] I encountered this gem in /Public Health Reports/, a government
publication, for April 26, 1918, p. 619.
[25] For the /Record/ see the issue of Dec. 14, 1917, p. 309. For the
New International Encyclopaedia see the article on Brotherhood of
Andrew and Philip. For the /World/ Almanac see the article on Young
People's Society of Christian Endeavor, ed. of 1914. The grammar-book
is Longman's Briefer Grammar; New York, 1908, p. 160. The editor is
George J. Smith, a member of the board of examiners of the New York
City Department of Education.
[26] Edwin S. Gould: Good English; New York, 1867, pp. 56-57.
[27] Despite the example of Congress, however, the Department of State
inserts the /the/. /Vide/ the /Congressional Record/, May 4, 1918, p.
6552. But the War Department, the Treasury and the Post Office omit
it. /Vide/ the /Congressional Record/, May 11, 1918, p. 6895 and p.
6914 and May 14, p. 7004, respectively. So, it appears, does the White
House. /Vide/ the /Congressional Record/, May 10, 1918, p. 6838, and
June 12, 1918, p. 8293.
[28] In the 60's an undertaker was often called an /embalming surgeon/
in America.
[29] In a list of American "universites" I find the Christian of
Canton, Mo., with 125 students; the Lincoln, of Pennsylvania, with
184; the Southwestern Presbyterian, of Clarksville, Tenn., with 86;
and the Newton Theological, with 77. Most of these, of course, are
merely country high-schools.
[30] The Rev. John C. Stephenson in the /New York Sun/, July 10, 1914:
... "that empty courtesy of addressing every clergyman as /Doctor/....
And let us abolish the abuse of ... /baccalaureate/ sermons for
sermons before graduating classes of high schools and the like."
[31] /Cf./ Dardanelles Commission Report; London, 1916, p. 58, § 47.
[32] Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold /Bug/" is called "The Golden
/Beetle/" in England. Twenty-five years ago an Englishman named
/Buggey/, laboring under the odium attached to the name, had it
changed to /Norfolk-Howard/, a compound made up of the title and
family name of the Duke of Norfolk. The wits of London at once doubled
his misery by adopting /Norfolk-Howard/ as a euphemism for /bed-bug/.
[33] A recent example of the use of /male-cow/ was quoted in the
/Journal/ of the American Medical Association, Nov. 17, 1917,
advertising page 24.
[34] /New York Organ/ (a "/family journal/ devoted to temperance,
morality, education and general literature"), May 29, 1847. One of the
editors of this delicate journal was T. S. Arthur, author of Ten
Nights in a Bar-room.
[35] John Graham Brooks: As Others See Us; New York, 1908, p. 11.
[36] Domestic Manners of the Americans, 2 vols.; London, 1832; vol. i,
p. 132.