230 



♦ KNO^A^LEDGE ♦ 



[August 1, 1887. 



even the narrowest (unless it be considered the broadest) of 

 my views, the real immorality of gambling, the experience 

 of all civilised nations that gambling whenever encouraged 

 has proved demoralising, and has had to be checked, affords 

 tolerably good proof that there is something immoral in its 

 very naf ure ; for that must surely be tinged with immorality, 

 which, when left to itself, proves invariably demoralising. 

 But I repeat that I have not hoped, and cannot reasonably 

 hope, that my book will correct the folly of the many._ The 

 wise 'never gamble or speculate (outside such speculation as 

 every business or pursuit in life necessarily involves. The 

 foolish will continue to gamble, probably, till the world's end. 

 (A daring "joker of jokes" once said that such men would 

 wager on the tone of Gabriel's last trump.) But, as I say 

 in my preface, I hope that some may be influenced for good ; 

 a few who are between the wiser and the more foolish may 

 join the better section if they are shown the unwisdom and 

 immorality of gambling ways. 



seems decidedly an Americanism. I should imagine that if 

 found anywhere in the old country it would be in Scotland 

 or on the border ; for it seems to be of French origin, like 

 the Scottish "galopin," an errand-boy, a common lad, and 

 " gamin," a street-boy, young blackguard. But I know of 

 no such word now in existence in the French language. 

 Possibly someone acquainted with French argot can tell us 

 -*' — . Everj'one remembers how Colonel Hay's Jim 

 e, when he " saw his duty a dead sure thing," said — 



of one 

 Bludsoe 



NOTES ON AMERICANISMS. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



Gad. This old word for a spike or pointed instrument- 

 akin to "goad"— is gravely given by Bartlett as an 

 Americanism still " used in the North of England." It is 

 still used in English dictionaries, and has been used from 

 the days of Johnson, through Walker's time, onwards until 

 now. 



Gall. (1) This word, which, though used in England 

 for bitterness of mind, has yet a peculiar Americ^in use for 

 something between cool impudence and malignity, is not 

 mentioned by Bartlett. The commonness of this usage is 

 decidedly American. " You show gall enough," a rude man 

 in America will say to his mother-in-law, sometimes even to 

 his wife ; where an Englishman equally wanting in polite- 

 ness might say, " I like your cheek 1 " or use some similar 

 vulgarism. (2) " A soil of vegetable libres," says Vignoles, 

 " matted and treacherous to the foot, unpleasant as well as 

 dangerous to crop." 



Gallinipper. a large gnat common in the Southern 

 States, somewhat resembling the mosquito in proclivities 

 and in appearance, but larger. 



Gallivant. Because this good old English word is used 

 in America precisely as it has been used from time 

 immemorial in England it is included by Bartlett among 

 Americanisms. The same remark applies just here to 

 "galloping" (consumption); to " gallows " (for fine, adjec- 

 tively or adverbially, this costermonger slang being gravely 

 described as a New York expression) ; to " gallowses," for 

 tronser-braces, or " suspenders," as Americans call them ; ti> 

 " galoshes," for overshoes, given as " a term universal in 

 Canada" ; to " gambree," for a hipped roof; to "gap" (used 

 for openings made in mountain regions by rivers, to open- 

 ings in fences, &c.) ; and to a host of other words beginning 

 with " g." Bartlett is in fact particularly weak in regard 

 to the English use of words which he includes among 

 Americanisms. It does not seem to mo that the occasional 

 ■ or local use of certain words in England should prevent us 

 from regarding their general and colloquial use on the other 

 side of'' the Atlantic as bringing them into the rank of 

 Americanisms. But if words as commonly used in some 

 special sense in England as in America are to be classed 

 among Americanisms, I can see no reason why a full 

 English dictionary should not be brought out as a dictionary 

 of Americanisms. 



Galoot. A common fellow, low-class person ; the word 

 does not seem always limited to the male sex. This word 



I'll hold her nozzle agin the bank 

 Till the last galoot's ashore 



(presumably including the female passengers). But in the 

 following quotation from " Grandpa's Soliloquy " — a poem 

 unknown to me, but I borrow here from Bartlett — the word 

 seems restricted to the male sex, even as the words 

 " galopin " and " gamin " have always been : — 



It wasn't so when I was 3'oung, 



We used plain language then ; 

 We didn't speak of them galoots 



When meaning boys and men. 



Not knowing the context, I am unable to say whether the 

 soliloquising grandfather here simply objects to the use of 

 such ungrammatic.al slang as " them galoots," instead of 

 saying " boys " or " men," or whether he objected to certain 

 folks, properly called " galoots," being included when 

 genuine boys and genuine men were spoken of. In the 

 latter case the word "galoot" would seem to bear an 

 unpleasant significance ; in the former, and more probable, 

 case (only, if that was meant, " them galoots " should have 

 been put between (/uilkmets) it would seem that the slang 

 use of the term " galoot " is of comparatively recent origin. 



Gam. a social visit : borrowed from seafaring terms. I 

 cannot say I have ever heard the word used. But Browne's 

 " Whaling Cruise " states that when two whalers meet in 

 any of the whaling-grounds, it is usual to have a yain, or 

 mutual visit, for the purpose of interchanging the latest 

 news, &c. 



Gander Party. A masculine social party. I once heard 

 a lady in America speak of a club as a "gander gang," a 

 term pleasingly alliterative if not strictly com]ilimentary. 



Gander-pulling. " A brutal species of amusement 

 practised in Engkind," Bartlett says, " as well as in Nova 

 Scotia." I have never heard of " gander-pulling " being 

 practised anywhere in Great Britain or Ireland, and must 

 conclude therefore that Bartlett means New England. 

 Cock-fighting is bad enough, but " gander-pulling," as 

 described in " Sam Slick," and as more fully pictured in 

 " The Prophet of the Smoky Mountains," is about the most 

 disgustingly brutal form of sport it ever entered into the 

 minds of men to invent. It must have been derived from 

 the more barbarous among the Indian races. A goose is 

 hung head downwards from a swinging rope on the branch 

 of a tree, and a .set of ruflians, riding under the suspended 

 goose at a gallop, try to pull off the poor creature's head as 

 they pass. I decline to degrade these pages by a fuller account 

 of this disgusting and brutalising sport — no ! scarcely 

 brutalising, for no one could by any possibility be made 

 more brutal than he must already be to engage in it. 



Gar. a kind of pike found in Southern and Western 

 rivers — sometimes called the alligator gar, perhaps because 

 of the fact that it has been known to fight the alligator. 

 Its business name is the Lepidosteus, formerly the Belone 

 truncata. It is interesting from its kinship with the 

 ganoid scaled fishes plentiful during Palaeozoic and Mesozoic 

 ages — as the l'holidoi)lionis, C/ieu-olepis, Plati/sotmis, ifec. 



Garden. The use of this word in America is peculiar, 

 though Bartlett (not knowing the English usage, in all 

 probability) makes no mention of it. What we in England 



