June 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



249 



Our observations in this department will, however, be con- 

 fined to the equipment of the work-room rather than to a 

 detailed account of microscopic objects, which are discussed 

 in another portion of this journal. 



But to return to the laboratory ^ter se ; there can be no 

 doubt that, although a special apai-tment wherein to conduct 

 research is not absolutely necessary, yet, where such is 

 available, it tends very largely to secure that comfort and 

 convenience which lead to an inducement to labour. On 

 this account the selected chamber should be so constructed 

 and arranged as to embody all the necessary hygienic 

 modern improvements, in addition to the special i-equu-e- 

 ments of the student. It will not, therefore, be out of 

 place if we devote our next contribution to a consideration 

 of the salient features of a thoroughly well regulated 

 naturalist's laboratory. 



AMERICANISMS. 



(^Alphabetically arrangid .) 



Bt Richard A. Proctor. 



[A good-natared critic, of the cheap (and " nasty ") sort, kindly 

 characterises these notes on American expressions as " cribbed 

 from Bartlett." As I indicated at the outset my obligation to 

 Mr. Bartlett, I do not consider that I need now say any- 

 thing further on that point, except to note that I have 

 found his book much less trustworthy than I hoped, and 

 that therefore my obligation is much less than I had expected 

 it to be when I frankly referred to it by anticipation. Yet 

 a critic who has never seen Mr. Bartletts " Dictionary of 

 Americanisms ' is, doubtless, quite honest, however ill-informed 

 (and unmannerly), in describing me as "cribbing" from it.] 



Different from or to. They assert in America that we in 

 England say " different to," whereas over the water they 

 more correctly say " different from " ; in other words, they 

 claim to set us right in regard to the use of the word 

 " different." It is hardly necessary to say here — i.e. in 

 addressing English readers — that with us " diflerent to " is 

 regarded as an offence against grammar quite as much as 

 in America. I had repeatedly noticed •' different to " in 

 American writings, and supposed it was a fault of speaking 

 which they shared with our ungrammatical classes, until 

 one day I heard it said that the fault was peculiar to 

 English writers. I suppose some Americans, acquainted 

 with the proper way of using the word " different," that is, 

 in company with " from," and reading English books with 

 the idea of noticing characteristics of English writing, have 

 paid more attention to the mistake of using " to " after 

 " different " in English books than in reading American 

 books. But I can assure them that in American works the 

 mistake is quite as common as in Engli.sh. In like manner, 

 I have been assured in Scotland that in England we much 

 more commonly say " he laid " for " he lay," or " it lays " 

 for " it lies," than they do in Scotland ; whereas, on the 

 contrary, English readei'S when they come across the mistake 

 in Scottish writings, suppose it to be a peculiarly Scottish 

 mistake. Bad grammar is spoken wherever the English 

 language is spoken. 



Diffieidted. For " pei-plexed." This is peculiar to the 

 South, and some assert to Georgia. In Scotland, however, 

 it was formerly used, and the verb to difficult appears in 

 Jamieson's " Scottish Dictionary." 



Diggings. This expression for " a place of working," and 

 later for " a place of abode," had its origin first in Western 

 America at the lead mines. A man's diggings were the 

 place where he was digging for ore. The expi-ession would 



hardly have originated except in a community where every- 

 one was employed in the same way, or extended re;\dily 

 except in a nation where to work is considered the duty of 

 every man, and idleness degi-ading. 



Dime. A silver coin worth ten cents. 



Dime Xovels. Trashy novels, because the novels sold for 

 a dime are usuaUy trashy. Yet no English novel-writer can 

 be sure that his works, especially bus shorter stories, may 

 not be sold for a dime in America, badly printed or even 

 villanously illustrated. 



Ding. Equivalent in the South for '• darned." Short 

 for 



Dinged ^ " darned." 



Diyigee, Dinky. Same as our English " dingy." 



Dip, Dipping. Some American ladies, especially in cer- 

 tain Southern States, take snuff in a particularly attractive 

 manner. A little stick of pine, about three inches long, 

 split like a brush at one end, is wetted and dipped into snuff. 

 "With the snuff thus taken tip the teeth are rubbed, " some- 

 times by the hour together," Mr. Bartlett states. Others 

 tie the snuff in a little bag and chew it. But the other way, 

 called " dipping," is the more elegant. The lips assume a 

 singularly lovely appearance after a few yeai-s' dipping. 



Dipper. (1) A pan with a handle for dipping water. 

 The seven leading stars in Ui-sa Major, which with us are 

 the Plough and the Churl's Wain (or, by a curious cor- 

 ruption, Charles's Wain), are in America called " The 

 Dipper." (2) One who takes snuff after the objectionable 

 manner described under Dip and Dipping. 



Dirt. In America the word " dirt " is used where we say 

 " earth." Thus a road in America repaired with eaith of 

 any sort is said to be repaired with dirt. Bartlett says a 

 turnpike road is a dirt road ; but this is not a correct way 

 of putting it. In Virginia, for instance, the turnpike roads 

 are " metalled," and distinguished, as such, from unmetalled 

 or dirt roads. Ovu- children retain this older use of the 

 word when they speak of an earth pie as a dirt pie. 



Sitting as good as goold in the gutter, 

 A-makin' his httle dirt pies. — Hood. 



Disgruntled. Disappointed ; disconcerted. The follow- 

 ing extract from the " Springfield Republican " illustrates not 

 only the use of this elegant word, but the bland and childlike 

 ways of Young America : — " The Reverend Newman Hall, 

 of London, tells how, when he was journeying to Chicago, 

 an apple-pudding bo}' on the cars, without any prelimi- 

 naries, took hold of and immediately examined his breast- 

 pin. Xevertheless the reverend gentleman, quite undis- 

 gruntled, remarked, ' Was it not there to be seen 1 Was he 

 not a man and a brother ] ' " The word may be met with in 

 old English writings. 



Disguised. Americans fondly imagine the expression 

 "disguised in liquor" to be an Americanism. It is of 

 course EngUsh slang, of great antiquity. 



Disremember. Not to remember. Good old " bad 

 English." 



Distressed. Pronounced distrest. Wretched. " Poor 

 distrest wretch," as we might say "poor devil." Really, a 

 nigger expression. 



District schoolmaster. The master of a public (i.e. free) 

 school in a district. The master of such a school seems to 

 be mostly a poor distrest wretch, in the most emphatic sense 

 of the words. Generally pronounced deestrick. 



Dite. This word, the equivalent of our old English 

 " doit," is an interesting New England survival. " Not a 

 doit I," we find the Ehzabethan saying ; and now in New 

 England, " I don't ftire a dite." 



Divide. A watershed. I have never heard this expres- 

 sion used out of America, and only in Western America. 



