354 



American English, 



4 



as the word is now understood, is a terrific storm, with low barometer, 

 light clouds or none at all, and the air full of particles of snow, in 

 the form of dry, sharp crystals, which, driven before the wind, bite 

 and sting like fire."* The term is said to have made its first appear- 

 ance in print about the year 1860, in a newspaper called the North- 

 ern Vindicator, published at Estherville, Minn. Its etymology can 

 only be guessed at, but there has been no lack of guesses. The 

 English word blister; the French houillard (see Surenne's Dictionary); 

 the German hlitz; the iSpanish hrisa'; the surname Blizzard (said to be 

 common around Baltimore) ; an unpronounceable Sioux term ; and 

 the Scotch verb blizzen, of which Jamieson's Dictionary remarks that 

 "drought is said to be blizzening when the wind parches and withers 

 the fruits of the earth" — all these, and I know not how many other 

 words in different languages, have been suggested, with various de- 

 grees of improbability, as the origin of the term. My own conjecture 

 is, that it is simply an onomatopoeia ; an attempt, not wholly unsuc- 

 cessful, to represent the whistling and " driving " noise of a terrible 

 storm. It should be added, before leaving this word, that it seems to 

 have been occasionally used in various places in the Eastern States, 

 for a long time past, in significations quite different from its present 

 meaning. Thus a newspaper correspondent writes from Solon, Me., 

 to the effect that twenty or thirty years ago the phrase let her bliz- 

 zard" was common in that locality, meaning "let her go," as applied 

 to the act of firing a gun or throwing a stone. Another, living in 

 Perry County, Pa., has heard the word for many years as the equival- 

 ent of a drink — " let's take a blizzard." It is said also to have been 

 in use in the same county in its present signification, as early as 1836, 

 but to have become obsolete in this meaning, years ago. [Since this 

 paragraph was set, I have received a letter from a well-informed friend 

 at the West^ who says : This word is in common use in Texas, and 

 has been for many years to describe a very severe * norther.' It has 

 been stated to me on competent authority that the thermometer has 

 been known to register from, say, 86° down to 26°, the change being 

 effected within the space of six or seven hours ! This has always been 

 popularly known as a blizzard. AVhen the temperature in the summer 

 season would be lowered only say 20°, it was known only as a norther. 

 I think the term has gradually crept northward, until its significance 

 is generally understood west of the Mississippi."] 



Boom. — A semi-slang expression (though it appears in the 1881 sup- 

 plement to Worcester descriptive of a sudden advance in popularity 

 or in price. Said to be borrowed from the mining phraseology of the 

 far West, where a process called "booming" is sometimes adopted to 

 clear off surface soil and reveal supposed mineral veins. An artificial 

 reservoir is constructed near the summit of a mountain, which is first 

 allowed to fill with water and is then suddenly opened, whereupon a 

 terrific torrent rushes down the slope, carrying rocks, trees, earth and 

 all, with resistless force. A newspaper writer says he has " seen gul- 

 lies fifty, seventy-five, and in some places a hunared feet deep, and 



* Cultivator and Country Gentleman^ Albany, N. Y., Vol. 44, p. 340. 



