OUR CHANGING SPEECH

Hokitika Guardian, 21 November 1925, Page 4

OUR CHANGING SPEECH

WOH Dft LOSE THEIR M KAN I N't -:S

11 is surprising how many n won! loses ils meaning in the course of much less limn a lilclirnc. When young Inlk declare, heliiml my hack, that I am a “hit patty” they mean that f am weak in the head, or “touched,” writes '‘An Old Bulfer" in the “Daily ?duil.” Kilty years ago it was people in the early stage or consumption wlnnn we spoke ol as “touched,” and “potty” was the slant; term lor what you now term “fishy,” If von say that Smith is a “poriver” you mean that lie “does himself too well” at table. A forger in my young days was a gorgeously dressed young fellow—a “kmit,” as lie was railed a few years ago. When you say that a thing was a “scream,” or “screaming.” you mean that it was very funny. We meant merely that it was very funny. A “muff” to you signifies an effeminate son of person with a marked distaste for any athletic pursuit likely to entail danger. “.Muffs” in our days were weak-minded people. \\ ho minds being spoken of as a “chap” nowadays? “Chap” in my youth was a term of contempt, as ’Mellow” used to he a century previously. “lluggernutgger” m'eant underhand or deceitful to mid-Victorians. Nowadays all “httggermagger” means i- a muddle. “He has a screw loose” is a term you use when implying that

a man is eccentric or a little weak in the head. Wo used it to suggest that a man’s financial position or reputation was unsound, or of two former Iriends between whom a cool ties had arisen.

A ••snob” to us iiv no means applied only to anv person who attached exaggerated importance to social distinctions. The term signified a luni-col-legiale townsman at Oxford or Cambridge. A “blackguard” did not mean a mail of any moral turpitude: it signified a very poor, dirty, and ragged person, often a regular churchgoer of exemplary life and principles. Nor was a “rad” a man who broke what a celebrated sporting nobleman called

••the laws that do matter.” He was merely a fellow who was always boirowing money and worming tip- out of his acquaintances.