American Language Supplement 2 (159 page)

1
Gillette
, of course, was suggested by
close shave
.

2
Traced by Nichols to
Sporting Life
, Oct. 4, 1902. Said to have been coined by William T. Hall, a Chicago sports reporter.

3
Traced by Nichols to 1888.

4
Bewildering are Slang Terms Used in Talk of Baseball Players, by Harold Parrott, Brooklyn
Eagle
, Aug. 9, 1936.

5
Introduced by the Baltimore Orioles and traced by Nichols to 1891. In his introduction to his Dictionary of Baseball Terminology and in Appendix II thereof he shows that of 100 terms for
hit
in vogue in 1938, 74 could be traced to 1918 or before.

6
Traced by Nichols to 1891. Dr. H. H. Bender, chief etymologist of Webster 1934, sent an agent to Bill Clarke, first baseman of the Baltimore Orioles, who said that it came from the name of
Charley
Esper, a left-handed pitcher, who walked like a lame horse. Lawrence C. Salter (private communication, Jan. 14, 1944) sent another agent to Billy Earle, an old-time catcher in the Western League, who said that it was suggested by a horse worked by one
Charley
, ground-keeper at Sioux City. The late Dr. Logan Clendening wrote to me on Nov. 20, 1943:
“Charley horse
is a ruptured muscle. It has exactly the same pathology as string-halt in a horse.” In Treatment of
Charley Horse, Journal of the American Medical Association
, Nov. 30, 1946,p. 821, it is described as “injury to a muscle, usually the
quadriceps femoris.”
This injury “consists first in a contusion, which results in a
hematoma
. Later the
hematoma
may organize into a
myositis ossificans
, forming soft bone in the muscle.” Other etymologies are in
Charley Horse
, by Bill Brandt,
Letters
, Nov. 11, 1935;
American Notes & Queries
, April, 1937, pp. 9–10, and My Thirty Years in Baseball, by John J. McGraw; New York, 1923, p. 52.

1
Also used on the race-track. Its etymology is discussed in
Dick Smith
, by Peter Tamony, San Francisco
News-Letter & Wasp
, Sept. 15, 1939, p. 12.

2
Also spelled
-do, -dew, -dow
, and
dypsido
. “This uncertainty as to spelling,” says Nichols, “is typical of terms invented by the players rather than the sports reporters.” Traced to 1932. At the start it was sometimes
dinky-doo
.

3
This is often assumed to be a back-formation from
fanatic
, but William Henry Nugent says in The Sports Section,
American Mercury
, March, 1929, p. 331, that it really comes from
fancy
, which has been in use in England to designate followers of the prize-ring since 1811. The steps, he says, were
fance, fans, fan
. In baseball use the DAE traces it to 1896.

4
Ducks on the Pond, by Joe Cummiskey,
PM
, April 21, 1943.

5
The etymology is uncertain. See Expedition Into
Fungoland
, Chicago
Tribune
(editorial page), Oct. 29, 1939, and
Fungo
and
Bingo
Again, by Peter Tamony,
American Speech
, Oct., 1937, pp. 243–44. Traced by the DAE to 1867.

6
The late Admiral Butler, before mentioned (private communication, Nov. 30, 1943), described
glass arm
as usually
myositis
(inflammation) of the long tendon of the biceps muscle. “Its action,” he said, “is three- or four-fold and its relations to synovial sheaths, bursas and joints complicated. Damage of these structures often produces a stiffness and rigidity accompanied by loss of the power to supinate the forearm.… The arm feels rigid, and as if likely to break like glass.”

7
Dugout Slang, by Jimmy Powers, New York
Daily News
, Jan. 12, 1937.

8
Apparently from
magnate
.

9
Traced by the DAE to 1868.

1
Baseball American, by Ring W. Lardner, in The American Language, second edition; New York, 1921, pp. 392–93, and third edition, 1923, pp. 404–05.

2
Ball Talk, New York
Times Magazine
, July 14, 1946. H. Allen Smith, in Rhubarb; New York, 1946: “A colloquialism inserted into the Yankee vernacular by Red Barber, the baseball broadcaster. Mr. Barber in turn picked it up from the prose of Garry Schumacher.… A noisy altercation, a broil, a violent emotional upheaval brought on by an epical dispute —such as whether one grown man had touched another on the body with a ball the size of a smallish orange.”

3
First found by Nichols in the New York
Press
, July 8, 1890.

4
Nichols traces it no further back than 1920.

5
Dugout Slang, by Jimmy Powers, New York
Sunday News
, Jan. 17, 1937.

6
Traced by Nichols to 1881.

7
Southpaw
is traced by Nichols to the Chicago
Herald
, July 24, 1891. Richard J. Finnegan, publisher of the Chicago
Times
, reports that it was coined by Charles Seymour (d. 1901). He says in a letter to Lloyd Lewis, Nov. 26, 1945: “The pitchers in the old baseball park on the Chicago West Side faced the west, and those who pitched left-handed did so with their
south paws
.” Baseball players believe that all left-handed pitchers are more or less balmy, just as musicians believe the same of oboe-players.

8
Traced by Nichols to 1866.

9
Nichols, in Appendix I of his Dictionary, lists many terms that baseball has given to the general speech,
e.g., to go to bat for, play-by-play, three strikes and out, hit-and-run, minor league, to pinch hit, something on the ball, on to his curves, on the bench, two strikes on him, grandstand play, double-header, home run, to play ball and team-play
. Some interesting history is in Nicknames of Baseball Clubs, by Joseph Curtin Gephart,
American Speech
, April, 1941, pp. 100–03, and in Baseball and Rounders, by Robert W. Henderson,
Bulletin of the New York Public Library
, April, 1939, pp. 303–14.

1
Originally, a
hair-dressing-parlor
. Latterly a
beauty-parlor, -shop, -shoppe (beauté-shoppe), -salon, -studio
or
-clinic
. In the
William Feather Magazine
, May, 1938,
beauty-marts, -bars, -chateaus
and
-laboratories
are all reported, and the
Modern Beauty Shop
, 1945, pp. 131, adds
-centers
and
-villas
. See Supplement I, p. 573.

2
This
recherché
term has been recognized in State laws providing for the examination and licensing of practitioners of the science.
Cosmetic
, of Greek origin, is traced in English to 1650, and the adjective
cosmetical
to 1559.
Cosmeticism
appeared in England in 1821.
Cosmetology
is apparently American. It was preceded by
cosmetician
and still has a rival in
beautician
. Both of the latter were suggested by
mortician
. See Supplement I, pp. 567–74.

3
Modern Beauty Shop
, Dec., 1945, p. 132: “[In dealing with] the
dowager’s hump
 … I place my hands firmly on each shoulder, close to the neck. Using my thumbs only, I move them in a circular massage over the fatty area. Pressure is necessary.”

4
Who invented this elegant term I do not know, but it seems to be American and goes back at least to 1936. It has been adopted in England.

5
From
pan
, face.

6
American Notes & Queries
, June, 1946, p. 40.

1
I am indebted here to Beauty-Parlor Slang, by E. E. Ericson,
American Speech
, Dec., 1941, p. 311, and to Miss Margaret Dempsey.

2
I am indebted here to News From the Rare Book Sellers, by Jacob Blanck,
Publisher’s Weekly
, July 14, 1945, and to Messrs. S. R. Shapiro and H. Allen Smith.

3
Most American brew-workers are Germans, and the rest understand German. This accounts for the number of terms from that language in their argot. I take all these from Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

4
Ger.
ausbrennan
, to burn out.

5
Ger.
schiessen
, to shoot, to burst forth.

6
Ger.
sich
kräusen
, to curl.

7
Ger.
geburtstag
, birthday;
salztag
, salt-day.

8
Ger.
kühl
, cool, and
schiff
, a vessel.

9
Ger.
lautern
, to clear or refine.

10
Ger.
ruh
, rest.

11
Ger.
schlauch
, a hose.

12
Sometimes
todsäufer
. A German term meaning dead-drinker. One of a
totsäufer’s
chief duties is to weep for the brewery at the funerals of saloonkeepers. See my Happy Days; New York, 1940, p. 44, n. 2.

13
All these come from Lexicon of Trade Jargon. See also Handbook of Brick Masonry Construction, by John A. Mulligan; New York, 1942, pp. 491–508.

14
It is common for workmen to call incompetent fellows by the designations of workers in other trades. The terms most commonly in use are
shoemaker
and
blacksmith
.

1
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

2
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

1
Language of the Trade, by Ernest A. Dewey,
Labor Today
, Sept., 1941, p. 19.

2
These come mainly from Western Words, by Ramon F. Adams; Norman (Okla.), 1944, and The Language of the Mosshorn, by Don McCarthy; Billings (Mont.), 1936. Adams points out, p. x, that the cowboy vocabulary is by no means uniform over the cattle country. The popularity of Western fiction has made most Americans familiar with many range terms, but I have included some of them in order to discuss their origin. W. Cabell Greet says in A Standard American Language?,
New Republic
, May 25, 1938, p. 68, that the speech of the cattlemen “derives from the Southern hill type,”
i.e.
, that of Appalachia.

3
Says Mary Dale Buckner, in Ranch Diction of the Texas Panhandle,
American Speech
, Feb., 1933, p. 29: “The cowboy and ranchman would use any amount of circumlocution to avoid calling a spade a spade in the presence of ladies.”

4
This is probably an Americanism, though the DAE does not list it. The NED’s first example is from William Cullen Bryant’s translation of the Iliad, 1870.

5
Sp.
bronco
, rough, rude. Traced by the DAE to
c
. 1850.

6
Cowboy Lingo of the Texas Big Bend, by Haldeen Braddy,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. VI, Part XV, Dec., 1937, p. 620.
Buckaroo
is from the Spanish
vaquero
, of the same meaning. Traced by the DAE to
c
. 1861.

7
Sp.
chaperejo
.

8
This term is discussed by Stephens, J., in South Kansas Railway
vs
. Isaacs, 49
Southwestern Reporter
, p. 691. I am indebted here to Judge Theodore Mack, of Fort Worth, Tex.

9
Lasso
is from the Sp.
lazo
and
lariat
from the Sp.
la reata
, both meaning a rope. The former is traced by the DAE to 1833 and the latter to 1835.

10
From the Spanish. As a noun traced by the DAE to 1839 and as a verb to 1847.

11
Harold W. Bentley says in A Dictionary of Spanish Terms in English; New York, 1932, p. 87, that it is from the Sp.
adobe
, a mud brick. Another, but improbable etymology, is in
Dogie, American Speech
, Oct., 1936, p. 218.

1
The DAE traces
tenderfoot
to 1875 and
dude
in this sense to 1885. A ranch which entertains visitors is a
dude-ranch
, traced to 1921. There is a
Dude Ranchers’
Association in the Northwest, and it has published a quarterly, the
Dude Rancher
, at Billings, Mont., since 1926.

2
From Joseph
Justin
, the name of an early maker whose workshop still survives at Fort Worth.

3
From the name of
Levi
Strauss, who began to make overalls in San Francisco in 1850.

4
From
loco-weed
(
Astragalus mollissims
or
Aragallus lamberti
), which causes severe nervous symptoms in cattle eating it.

5
AL4, p. 189. Traced by the DAE to 1869.

6
John M. Hendrix, in The Nester,
Cattleman
, March, 1946, p. 84: “A name given to those intrepid souls who broke away from the credit system of East Texas to gain a foothold in the cattle country.”

7
From Sp.
rodear
, to surround, to gather together. Traced by the DAE in the first sense to 1851. The
rodeo
in the second sense has now taken the place of the old-time Wild West show. McCarthy, before cited, says that the word is pronounced
ró-de-o
in Montana and Wyoming, and
ro-dáy-o
elsewhere.

8
Mr. Bruce Nelson, of Bismarck, N. D., tells me that the Indians used to mount from that side.

9
Both come from the name of the maker, John Batterson Stetson, of Philadelphia (1830–1906). A. L. Campa says in
Ten-Gallon Hats, American Speech
, Oct., 1939, p. 201, that
ten-gallon
does not refer to the cubic capacity of such a hat, but to the braid —Sp.
galón
.

1
Cowboy Lingo Has Enriched Our Language, by Nat McKelvey,
Everybody’s Digest
, Aug., 1945, p. 86: “Hollywood stole
stinker
from the cowboy. Originally, he was a newcomer who skinned the buffalo the hunters killed.”