BRITICISMS VERSUS AMERICANISMS 3*9 



minds of the English precisians alternate feelings of disgust and indig- 

 nation. Let it be premised, however, that it is not proposed to include 

 ordinary slang in the present discussion. It must be admitted that 

 too much slang is employed even in polite circles, not to mention the 

 speech of those who make no pretense to refinement and culture. But 

 one should not confuse vulgarisms with so-called Americanisms, just 

 as one should not confuse vulgarisms with legitimate slang. The dis- 

 criminating student distinguishes between ordinary slang and legiti- 

 mate slang. The vulgar slang of the street is, of course, to be univer- 

 sally condemned and tabooed. Legitimate slang, on the contrary, 

 performs an important function in the development of a living lan- 

 guage. It is not to be inconsiderately ostracized, therefore, and put 

 under the ban as the chief source of corruption of our vernacular, as 

 certain of our purists, in their zeal without knowledge, tell us and at- 

 tempt to maintain. It is idle for them in their self-appointed role of 

 guardian of the pristine purity of the English tongue to endeavor to 

 defend so unsound and so indefensible a thesis. For legitimate slang, 

 far from being an unmitigated evil and a constant menace to the purity 

 and propriety of our noble tongue, is standard English in the making, 

 is idiom in the nascent state before it has attained to the dignity of 

 correctness of usage. To change the figure, legitimate slang is the 

 recruiting ground whence come the new and untried words which are 

 to take the place in the vernacular, of the archaic and obsolete words, 

 dropping out of the ranks. But it is aside from the main purpose of 

 this paper to discuss the relation of slang to standard usage (cf. ' What 

 is slang?' Popular Science Monthly, February, 1906), and hence 

 this only in passing. 



By an Americanism, as here used, is meant a word, phrase or idiom 

 of the English tongue, in good standing, which has originated in 

 America or is in use only on this side of the Atlantic. It will be seen, 

 therefore, that all mere slang expressions, even though they be of 

 American origin, are barred from the present consideration. In his 

 dictionary of ' Americanisms/ Bartlett gives a large collection, many 

 of which the above limitation, of course, excludes. 



Of reputed Americanisms, as one might surmise, there are several 

 classes to be distinguished, without any very clearly defined line of 

 demarcation separating them. One class includes a large number of 

 phrases which had their origin in England and were transported thence 

 to our shores by the first settlers who came from the mother country 

 and established themselves in Virginia and Massachusetts. In the 

 last analysis these locutions appear to be transplanted British provin- 

 cialisms, not a few of which came over in the Mayflower. Some of our 

 British critics who are not as familiar with the history of the English 

 language as they might be do not hesitate to deliver an offhand opin- 



