THE ORIGIN OF “SLANG.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4332, 6 February 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ORIGIN OF “SLANG.”

The following lecture on this curious and interesting subject, was lately delivered in Camperdown (Victoria!, by Professor Strong, of the University of Melbourne ; Professor Strong, after a few prefatory words, said :—ln Mr. Disraeli’s novel of Lothair, Mr. Pinto is made to remark about the English language—“ English is an expressive language, but not difficult to master. Its range is limited. It consists as far as I can observe, of four words —‘ nice,’ ‘jolly,’ ‘charming,’ and ‘ bore,’ and some grammarians add ‘fond.’” Now, this critic of the English language appears to me to have hit off one of the main characteristics of our tongue, viz., the tendency to adopt new or strange terms which we are accustomed to designate as “ slang." And further, he has hit two points which seem to me to be the very principles upon which all slang rests ; the first, that it seeks to substitute a more forcible form of expression for a less forcible one ; the second, that when this form of expression is once found and adopted it economises it, and makes it do a larger duty than it ought to becalled on to do. Accordingly, I shall try in this lecture not merely to give the origin of a number of slang words, that you may find in any slang dictionary, and notably in the excellent one published by Mr. Hotten ; but I shall endeavor to show the principle upon which the creation of slang rests, and its adoption into the English language. I think that this will be a task not merely amusing, but instructive : it is always good to see the why of any result, and,jt our language be the product of a complex aggregation of causes which we designate as our civilisation ; if language bo the true photograph of tho thoughts and actions of ourselves and our ancestors, as I take it to he, it will not be amiss to examine even a small section of that photograph somewhat minutely that we may see if there bo anything in the original capable of correction or improvement. The first point then to which I would call your attention is this —that a nation’s language shows you more intimately and minutely its characteristics and thoughts than any other outward sign of civilisation. Art reflects only the mind of a certain favored few of a nation who have skill to execute, or taste to appreciate, those works which show the way in which that favored few would cou-

ceive of nature in its perfection. The same remark would apply to a nation’s music—a nation's discoveries in science. But the vocabulary of a nation Is fed from every class of society; by studying it may bo discerned something of the history, much of the social state of a nation; its loves, its passions, its capabilities, its aspirations, its sorrows. . Every man who speaks tho English language—-which is even at present the most important on the globe—is capable of adding a new word to the English language, or of affixing a new shade of meaning to an old word. If a feeling be strongly felt in a nation, the nation will have a word in its vocabulary corresponding to the feeling; or it will take deliberately an existing word and affix to it a new sense. The feeling in time may itself become obsolete, and we then require to invent another word, leaving the old one to die out, or to remain, if there remain a class of persons to whom the expression is a necessity. Take for instance the case of “ telegram.” Wheatstone perfects a system which enables a cousin at the antipodes to electrify his cousin in the old country by a message. These messages soon become a necessity : art is long hut life is short, so that mankind decline to waste their breath in talking of a telegraphic despatch ; the philosophers are appealed to for the proper designation of the modern Puck—they would fain christen him Telegrapheme ; hut even this soubriquet is too exhausting for the lungs of the British public, and first they, and after them the world, have acquiesced in the more manageable telegram. The hideous word cablegram is a similar instance of a new word applied to, a new thing; an instance of a word which was undoubted slang when Sir Wm. Thomson wedded England and America with a hempen tie, which is to-day forcing itself down the throats of the educated, and which may in a year be accepted as genuine English from Kansas to Gape Comorin. The position being established that when the need of a word is felt the word will be created or supplied, we see that the language which has most ideas on any particular subject will, probably speaking, possess most words for the expression of those ideas. The witty Heine remarks: — “ The Arab has a thousand expressions for a sword, the Frenchman for love, the Englishman for hanging, the German for drinking, the South German ’ even for the resorts where he drinks,” The satirist is, by-the-bye, not quite correct here ; his own countrymen have live times the number of expressions for the not uncommon feeling of love that the Frenchman has. The Frenchman loves his dog, and has no deeper expression—unless he resorts to hyperboles and metaphors —to express his toleration of his wife. But let us apply this to the English language, and take the pastime in which most of us iu this colony delight more or less, riding and horseracing. There is not a single kind of horse which is not designated in some very particular ■way, manifesting the accuracy witli which we have classified the species of the animal which we use as our victim or pet. Thus —horse, cob, thoroughbred, nag, steed, palfrey, courser, steeplechaser, mount, hack, screw, jade, &c. Most of these words must on their first introduction have passed as slang, while the majority of them have by a species of natural selection passed into our vocabulary. Again, it has always been quoted as against the English nation that they exhibit a marked tenderdemess for the vice of drunkenness. So we find a corresponding amount of names for the vice itself, and for those who are guilty of the vice. A satirical student at Oxford drew up a barometer of drink, in which he denoted the various stages of this national pastime. As far as I remember it ran somehow as follows :—Merry, squiffy, a sheet in the wind, three sheets in the wind, tight, screwed, nipped, beery, groggy, maudlin, as drunk as a lord, as drunk as a fiddler, blind drunk, &0., &o. In these expressions it is to be noted that while all of them name the vice mildly, some grow almost endearing in their denominations of its various phases. A German critic has again drawn attention to the number of words which exist in English indicating tho chief traits of the English character. The English language is wonderfully . strong in historical, Critical, political, and moral expressions. Such expressions as Whig, Tory, Irish though they may be in their origin, are essentially English in their use, and succeeded by Liberal and Conservative, have taken their place in the vocabulary of the world. Besides these, the English language contains a copious vocabulary of synonyms for the more violent passions, such as—anger, wrath, passion, rage, fury, outrage, fierceness, 'sharpness, animosity, choler, resentment, hate,' heat, heart-burning ; to fume, storm, inflame, be incensed, to vex, kindle, irritate, enrage, exasperate, provoke, fret; to be sullen, hasty, hot, rough, sour, peevish, sulky, indignant, &c. The French language is especially rich in terms which have reference to social brilliancy. The Frenchman is lively, witty, intelligent, an acute observer, a tasteful critic, a lover of conversation, social, above every other nation. Accordingly, in this French nation we should expect beforehand an abundant crop of those words which express the life and readiness which is the very soul -of conversation. And so we find it in fact. The Frenchman has given to oiulanguage the words point, sally, trait d'esprit, bon mot; our words, mockery, raillery, irony, sarcasm, are all French ; virtu, ilav, repartee, are all French, and cannot be expressed either in English or in German, but by borrowing the French word in its entirety. The German language again is so philosophical, that the number of words which it contains for expressions to represent the ideas of philosophy are in excess of those in French and English combined. I need not dwell longer upon this point. I repeat that it seems clear that tho language of every nation will, in flume sense, be found to mirror the spirit of that nation, and to this the English language forms no exception. Now the English language is pre-eminently the language of a nation who, without being particularly precipitate in plunging into action, yet, when engaged in action, is eminently precipitate in wishing itself out of it, and steadily struggles with a view to that issue. They would seem to unite something of the dash of their Norman and Celtic forefathers, with the solemn calculation of their Saxon ancestors. Accordingly it may fearlessly be asserted that no modern language expresses itself so briefly and tersely as the English. Where the language of action is needed, the English is alreatTy the language of the world. You may hear tho familiar ‘.‘stop her,” “back her,” —the slang of the English mariners—from Greenland to Cape Comorin. The word “ revolver ” is good French and good German, simply because the little instrument which that word expresses is an English invention, and that the little instrument expressed by the word has been found indispensable to French and German civilisation. I now wish to come to the point—What are those elements in stylo which render it forcible 2 What is it which leads us to say to ourselves on liaving read any passage that it has made upon us a strong effect 2 How does a mau when he would drive a series of statements home to the inner mind of hia audience express himself! This, it should be borne in mind is tho very soul of slang, for slang is the expression of the wants and objects of humanity in their most expressive and moat commonplace aspect. Firstly, then, the construction of metaphors must bo regarded as one of the most powerful engines in the formation of human speech. We are all aware that a metaphor means the transferring of a name from the object to which it properly belongs to other objects which strike the mind as in some way participating in the peculiarities of the first object. Now it has been truly stated by Professor Max Muller that metaphors enrich language more than any other’ cause. If we say that vague language is a “ fertile ” source of error, we are using a word which can, strictly speaking, only be applied to a field. But it is certain that in ordinary language we have no word which would equally express the frequent apparent disappearance and subsequent cropping up of error, just as or horbs crop up from tho ground. The-point, however, to which I wish to call your attention is that to which Locke, quoted by Professor Max Muller, has already called attention, that the words which we habitually use to express intellectual notions, such as —to apprehend, to comprehend, to understood, to penetrate, to fathom, tt imagine,

spirit, angel, are all metaphors drawn from material conceptions. To apprehend, and to comprehend are simply to grasp with the hand. In fact, if we wish to state an idea very strongly and picturesquely, instead of saying “have you fully .comprehended the idea,” we .should say “ have you fully grasped the idea.” In the same way the very fundamental rule in using forcible language is that you should use language which conveys a definite picture instead of vague and abstract language. Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer rightly bids us write in the place of “ In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of their penal code will be severe,” in proportion as men delight in battles, bull fights, and combats of gladiators, will they, &c. Well, then, metaphors, as a rule, repose upon the principle that it is advisable to produce the most forcible impression possible upon the mind of the hearer. Upon the same principle rests the fact that it requires less effort on the mind of the hearer or reader to appreciate simple words, such as father, give .leave, instead of sire, present permission. The Short Saxon terms are those which a child first hears from his nurse or mother; they raise a definite picture in his mind, whereas the others present but, so to speak, a copy. The very heart and soul of distinctness is a definite picture or diagram ; such a picture is given by definite words and by metaphors, and therefore we use them. The precepts of rhetoric then shortly stated are, seek before all things distinctness and brevity; slang comes in as a handmaid to rhetoric, and offers to supply at a cheap rate what rhetoric commands. Slang recruits its vocabulary then, firstly, from the language of handicraftsmen of every class and grade. Every art and every profession has a certain vocabulary of its own, from the fact that every one employed in such art or profession has to use a certain amount of terms very frequently, and seeks to make these as short as possible. Thus, take the word cad or cadger, and follow its history. No word is more common in the English language to denote that unlovely phase of humanity with which the British nation seems specially familiar. It is taken from the ancient sport of falconry, and denoted the man who carried the cage of the lord to whom the noble birds belonged. Shakespeare is full of metaphors taken from the same sport, as “ come ‘ seeling ’ night- I —imp out thy drooping country’s wing,” &c.; this word cad has alone survived to express a phenomenon difficult to translate into another language. At least I remember to have been sorely perplexed when a Erench gentleman asked me to translate to him the expression “ a howling cad.” Snob is said to be an east country word for a bootmaker’s apprentice. It is curious to notice that the three expressions which have been picked out to indicate the three estates of the realm were all originally slang words, viz., “nob,” “snob,” and “ mob.” Nob is simply the short for nobleman, and mob is simply the abbreviated form of the expression mobile vulgus. The naval profession has furnished us, as might have been expected, with a host of terms, which will, no doubt, have struck originally upon the ear as slang. Thus we say of a man who has been indulging the vice for which we have the greatest tenderness, that he is “a sheet in the wind,” and we talk of a speculation paying Al, from the fact of ships of the first-class being registered Al at Lloyds. We have the preverb “the devil to pay and no pitch hot,” which Mr. Tylor informs us is not the sheer nonsense which landsmen make of it, but applies to a certain seam called by sailors “ the devil,” from its awkwardness to caulk ; last, but not least, we have the word “ lark ” in the expression “a jolly lark.” This word comes from the marine term “skylarking,” itself a metaphor; mounting to the highest yards and sliding down the ropes for amusement, which is allowed as a recreation on certain occasions. Again, we call an empty bottle a marine—apropos of which you will remember the story of an officer of marines flying into a passion at hearing the epithet applied in that way in his presence, but being instantly pacified by the assurance that no insult was intended ; it was simply meant to infer that the useful vessel had done its duty once, and meant to do it again. So we talk of an “admiral of the red” for an old gentleman whose blushing countenance bears testimony to his leaning to port wine. At this point the lecturer proceeded to describe in detail the origin of slang words and phrases. For many of these we were indebted to thieves and gipsies, to the latter in particular. Some came into use in our language in connection with men’s or women’s names. Others came from some well-known story or apt allusion, and were the result in many cases of sheer accident. A great many were good English long ago, carried by the early settlers to the American continent, and now returned to us. In this portion of his lecture' Professor Strong was particularly happy in his selection and illustration of slang words and phrases. But His summing up must not be omitted. It was an appropriate sequel to the introductory portion, and contains the moral of the whole. “ Slang is the outcome of the desire of human nature to produce as strong an effect as possible, with as little effort as possible. It produces the effect by habitually using specific terms and phrases in the place of general ones; it recruits its vocabulary from all sources, welcoming alike words of the hoariest antiquity and the newest coined small change, so that they may serve its end. Its definition is constantly varying, for the catalogue of admissible words is constantly being recruited from those which are slang. Finally, the abuse of slang is twofold ; firstly, it tempts us to habitually overstate what we have to say—to use stronger expressions than are absolutely necessary to convey our meaning; and, secondly, the ease and willingness with which we adopt a slang word and apply it to a large range of objects or notions, renders slang dangerous, as impeding accuracy of thoughts or impressions. In new countries the thing which I think most strikes a stranger is the tendency to excess in everything, and slang is just the excess of language. It seems to me that everything moves faster than in the old country, inventions are more quickly adopted and the spread of civilisation thereby furthered, and riches accumulate more rapidly, disappear more rapidly, griefs and regrets are more transient, acquaintanceships are more common than friendships, are more quickly entered upon, and more lightly discarded. Absolute and unflinching truth may be venerated in the abstract, but an accommodating compromise with that pedantic and old-world virtue seems to bo the inclination of our age and country, I know that there is no possibility of clogging the wheels of progress, but one may be excused for now and then looking at the ‘ primrose path’ along which her chariot rolls, and hoping that the goal which it strives to attain with such speed may be other than a Shakespearian one. As long as slang merely represents hurry, and the nervous haste of vigorous progress and a healthy mind, I conceive that no one can have anything to say against it ; immediately that it goes beyond this, and indulges itself in the habitually coarse and disgusting language which seems to have become a second nature to too many of the youth of this colony, it ceases to be useful or ornamental, but ranges itself with the rest of those influences which are ever striving to render life less lovely and less worth living.” ■ • •