136 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and not undertake to decide which of these expressions are slang and 

 which standard English. For it is no easy matter to trace the line 

 of cleavage between the legitimate technicality of a given craft or pro- 

 fession and polite slang. For instance, are corner, bull, bear and 

 slump, so familiar in financial parlance, mere technical phraseology 

 or slang? How is one to classify such political terms as mugwump, 

 buncombe, gerrymander, scalawag, henchman, log-rolling , pulling the 

 wires, machine, slate and to take the stump? If these are mere tech- 

 nical terms, surely boycott, cab, humbug, boom and blizzard have passed 

 beyond the narrow bounds of technicality and are verging on that 

 dubious borderland between slang and standard English. Further- 

 more, are swell, fad, crank, spook and stogy to be considered slang or 

 good English? Each of these terms is supported by the authority of 

 some of our best writers. Swell, to cite only one example, is bolstered 

 up by the authority of Thackeray, who in his ' Adventures of Philip ' 

 writes : ' They narrate to him the advent and departure of the lady in 

 the swell carriage, the mother of the young swell with the flower in 

 his buttonhole.' Again, how is one to regard fake, splurge, sand, 

 swagger, blooming (idiot), to go it blind, to catch on, and that vast 

 host of similar racy and vivid phrases which, if slang, still do duty for 

 classic English in common parlance ? 



A glance at some of our slang idioms shows that they are borrowed 

 from the cant of various crafts and callings. Some are borrowed from 

 the technical vocabulary of the stage, some are taken over from the 

 phraseology of sporting life, while some bear the stamp of various 

 other vocations. Take as an illustration fake, or, better still, green- 

 horn, which has forced its way to recognition in standard English. 

 At first greenhorn was applied figuratively to a cow or deer or other 

 horned animal when its horns are immature. In the ' Towneley 

 Mysteries ' it is applied to an ox, for example. Later it was extended 

 to signify an inexperienced person, or one who, from lack of acquaint- 

 ance with the ways of the world, is easily imposed upon. The former 

 application where the term was used in allusion to an immature horned 

 animal is a legitimate metaphor. The latter use when applied to an 

 inexperienced person was doubtless recognized as an extension of the 

 metaphor and as slang. But the word filled a need in the vocabulary 

 and was at length admitted into the guild of good usage. Another 

 illustration is furnished by mascott, a recent importation from the 

 French. This word originated in gambler's cant and signified a talis- 

 man, a fetish, something designed to bestow good luck upon its pos- 

 sessor. The term, despite its unsavory association, somehow has com- 

 mended itself to popular favor and now seems not to offend the most 

 refined taste. Slump, though not so hackneyed, may serve as an 

 example in point also. As a provincialism this word denotes soft 



