American Language Supplement 1

by H. L. Mencken

  5 Used by Thomas Hood in 1827, but apparently by no one else in England afterward. Reinvented in the United States c. 1910, and since adopted in England. Denounced by the Manchester Guardian Nov. 24, 1939 as one of “our nastier newcomers.”

  6 In the sense of to take a recess. Listed as an Americanism by the NED and traced to 1893. The English seldom use recess in the American sense of a hiatus in proceedings.

  7 And Here’s Another, by H. H. Williams, Philadelphia Record, Nov. 7, 1930: “If you refuse to publish letters as they are written, have the common manhood to wastebasket them.”

  8 Mayor Won’t Ride Horse, New York World-Telegram, Nov. 3, 1932: “He saw Paddy Collins grand-marshalling a St. Patrick’s Day parade.”

  9 A Seeming Injustice, Ottawa Journal, March 7, 1934: “Its sale is no longer momentumed by advertising.”

  10 The DAE does not list this word, but it is probably an Americanism. The NED’s first English example is dated 1889. Five years before this the New York Sun was denouncing the Intercollegiate Football Association for using it in a pronunciamento regarding a dispute in a Princeton game. See Referee as a Verb, by W. L. Werner, American Speech, Feb., 1933, p. 81.

  11 Capitol Daily (Washington), quoted in New Words for Old, Baltimore Evening Sun, June 2, 1938: “Ohio’s Senator Donahey chairmans the joint congressional committee investigating the Tennessee Valley Authority.”

  12 Headline in Los Angeles Daily News, July 22, 1937, quoted in Words, Oct., 1937, p. 154: “Alfred Hertz Again Batons Symphony.”

  13 American Speech, April, 1935, p. 154: “ ‘Do you wish your hamburger onioned?’ is a query heard at lunch-stands.”

  14 Associated Press dispatch from Washington, Feb. 25, 1926: “The Vice President gaveled through a motion.” The DAE lists the noun, gavel, in the sense of a mallet or hammer used by a presiding officer, as an Americanism, and traces it to 1860. It seems to be borrowed from the name of a hammer used by stonemasons, traced to 1805 and also marked an Americanism. The origin of the term is said by the DAE to be “obscure.”

  1 Used by Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi, 1883, p. 379. Ramsay and Emberson call attention in their Mark Twain Lexicon: Columbia, Mo., 1938, p. lxxxii, to his delight in “turning nouns, adjectives or interjections into verbs; verbs, adjectives or adverbs into nouns; adjectives into adverbs; adverbs into adjectives; transitive verbs into intransitive or vice versa.” They list, among verbs made of nouns unchanged, to argument, to chain-mail, to Christian-missionary, to deficit, to discretion, to foreground, to grail, to Jew’s-harp, to majesty, to paregoric, to sarcasm, to stove-polish and to tadpole.

  2 Harry L. Hopkins at a press-conference in Washington, quoted in New Words for Old, Baltimore Evening Sun, Aug. 26, 1938: “I do not appoint those who would submarine the program.”

  3 Advertisement in Architectural Forum, May, 1937, p. 8: “Architected by A. N. Rebori.” I am indebted here to Mr. Winslow Ames. See also The Erteguns Serve a Dinner Worthy of Diplomatic Dean, by Evelyn Peyton Gordon, Washington Daily News, April 26, 1944.

  4 The last two are noted in American Speech, Oct., 1933, p. 76.

  5 American Speech, Oct., 1934, p. 236.

  6 From the name of Sherlock Holmes. American Speech, July, 1927, p. 449, reported that the Germans had adopted it in the form of sherlockieren.

  7 Advertisement in the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 8, 1926, noted in American Speech, Dec., 1926, p. 163. The verb has since appeared frequently in department-store advertising.

  8 Saturday Review of Literature, Dec. 26, 1936, noted in American Speech, Oct., 1937, p. 239.

  9 True Detective, June, 1941, noted in Among the New Words, by Dwight L. Bolinger, American Speech, April, 1942, p. 123.

  10 Common Sense, Sept., 1941, noted by Bolinger, just cited.

  11 Used in various metaphorical senses, all suggesting penetration. See Bolinger, just cited, p. 123.

  12 First noted in 1884. See New Evidence on Americanisms, American Speech, April, 1942, p. 125.

  13 New York Post, Sept. 12, 1939, noted by Dr. Louise Pound in Miscellany, American Speech, Dec., 1939, p. 316.

  14 Advertisement in the New York Times, Sept. 24, 1939, noted by Dr. Pound, just cited.

  15 i.e., to travel by a Clipper airship.

  1 To ready is actually very old in English, and the NED traces it to c. 1350. In 1831 Thomas Carlyle used it in Sartor Resartus (what a swell Variety reporter he would have made!), but after that it apparently dropped out of use save in racing slang, and I believe that the Variety brethren invented it all over again. It seems to be creeping back into use in England.

  2 Whether or not its revolutionary literati invented to decision I do not know, for the verb is also much used by sports writers. It was defended by Ira Seebacher in the New York Telegraph, May 30, 1940, as follows: “To decision fills a need.… If a man wins a prizefight by knocking out his opponent he is said to have won by a knockout or a kayo, in fact, kayo is used often as a verb — he kayoed his man. Similarly, if a fighter wins by a decision, it isn’t clear enough to say Joe Doaks won over John Doe. That wouldn’t explain whether he was the winner by a knockout, by a technical knockout or by a decision. But if you were to say Joe Doaks decisioned John Doe, that would make it fairly evident just what you meant.… There is no other solution than to give each play, each position, and each situation a name. When you have names, you must correspondingly have verbs that describe the action that takes place. There is no way to circumvent it. The best one can hope for is a terse word that takes care of the matter completely.”

  3 To author, I believe, is authentically a Variety coinage, but it has been in general use for some years, and seems to be a favorite among the pseudo-literati. 1927 Sees Decrease in Number of Syndicates, by Philip Schuyler, Editor and Publisher, Aug. 27, 1927, p. 7: “Patten authors the text of the strip.” Bobbs-Merrill Company circular to book reviewers, Aug. 17, 1937, signed D. A. Cameron: “Lawrence Greene authored ‘America Goes to Press.’ ” Washington Is Indignant Over Farr Convoy Story, Editor and Publisher, March 14, 1942, p. 16: “The Mail story was authored by that newspaper’s representative with the United States fleet.” Bennett Cerf in the Saturday Review of Literature, Feb. 19, 1944, p. 19: “Hammerstein authored ‘Carmen Jones.’ ” Journal of the American Medical Association, April 15, 1944, p. 1151: “Radley once authored an article in a chiropractic journal.” Louis J. Halle, Sr., in the Saturday Review of Literature, June 10, 1944, p. 20: “The article should have appeared not as authored by me but by my son.” To author was defended by James Gray in Critics Extreme in Attempt to Enrich Speech, St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 14, 1929. It was once, he said, “a perfectly good word, meaning to create or originate. The dictionaries now list it as obsolete. But if Broadway in its devotion to vigor and directness wishes to take a short cut back to the early habits before our tongue became fussily refined, the professors themselves should be the ones to clear the way.” To author was used by Chapman in 1596, but apparently did not last long. The NED’s last example is dated 1632. When the thing written is a movie script Variety uses to script.

  4 This is apparently not one of Variety’s inventions. I find “It is never signatured by the Postmaster General or his assistants” in Observations On the Duties of Contact Men as Applied to Post Office Department Organization, by John H. Bartlett, First Assistant Postmaster General; Cleveland, 1924, p. 1. Instead of to signature, Variety and its imitators sometimes use to ink.

  1 New Words for Old, Baltimore Evening Sun, May 21, 1938, quoted from Variety: “Clancy claimed the plot of the film was thefted from his play.”

  2 Cole Porter’s Gift, Variety, Sept. 16, 1942: “Porter’s ‘Glide, Glider, Glide’ was gifted to the fliers without any strings.” To gift is very old in English, but Variety seems to have revived it. It has produced a number of derivatives, e.g., to Christmas-gift and to gift-price, already noted.

  3 I find to luncheon-guest in the Gold. fish Bowl, house organ of the National Press Club, Washington,
March, 1937, p. 2. Along with it is to luncheon-hear, i.e., to listen to a speaker invited to unburden himself at lunch.

  4 Florida Review, Spring, 1938, p. 2.

  5 I am indebted here to Mr. R. Balfour Daniels of Pittsburg, Kansas.

  6 Used by the late General Hugh S. Johnson; New Words For Old, Baltimore Evening Sun, July 11, 1938.

  7 Many more are in The Current Tendency Toward Denominative Verbs, by Manuel Prenner, American Speech, Oct., 1938, pp. 193–96.

  1 Now absorbed by the Daily Telegraph. Mr. Eden as Stonewaller, Dec. 17, 1935: “Mr. Anthony Eden stonewalled persistent attacks.”

  2 Western Morning News, Nov. 27, 1937: “He is again partnered by Miss Joan Blondell.”

  3 March 1, 1937: “ ‘In many cases,’ declared one speaker, ‘county councils neither want themselves to town plan nor will they allow the small burghs to town plan.’ ”

  4 July-Sept., 1938.

  5 Park, by Louise Pound, American Speech, May, 1927, p. 346. I am informed by a correspondent that the French use stationner of automobiles, and that the Germans use parken or stationieren.

  6 The Living Language, by Dwight L. Bolinger, Words, Sept. 1937, p. 135.

  7 “It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress … to establish a streamlined, long range, integrated Federal tax policy.” On Feb. 16, 1944 it appeared again in the preamble of H. J. Res. 236, introduced by the Hon. Henry O. Talle of Iowa. I am indebted here to Mr. H. R. Bishop of Washington.

  8 Ranch Diction of the Texas Panhandle, by Mary Dale Buckner, Feb., 1933, p. 31.

  9 Among the New Words, American Speech, Feb., 1943, p. 64.

  1 I am indebted here to the late Admiral Charles S. Butler, M.C., U.S.N., (1875–1944), to Dr. Logan Clendening, author of Modern Methods of Treatment, The Human Body, Source Book of Medical History, etc., and to Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In some of the countries of Europe, where geese are plentiful, they are also said to attack women by striking at the pudenda. An illustration of both methods of attack is in Illustrierte Sittengeschichte, by Eduard Fuchs; München, 1912, p. 86.

  2 I am indebted here to Dr. Carey P. McCord, medical director of the Industrial Health Conservancy Laboratories, Detroit.

  3 One of them reads: “Goosey. A goosey man is one who is nervous. When you touch him he jumps. There is nothing funny about it. One goosey man jumped off a scaffold and broke both legs when a fellow worker touched him. Another almost jumped into a pot of molten slag. To intentionally startle a nervous person while at work is more than a mean trick — IT IS CRIMINAL.” Another poster warns especially against goosing with an air hose: “you might kill him.” I am indebted here to Fred Hamann.

  4 It is denounced, for example, along with horseplay and scuffling, on p. B of General Safety Manual Applicable to All Hazardous Industries, issued by the State Industrial Accident Commission of Oregon, Jan. 1, 1937. I am indebted here to Mr. Robert W. Evenden, director of the commission.

  1 Art and the Soldier, by Paul Mayriel; Biloxi, Miss., 1943, p. 42. I am indebted here to Captain A. M. Klum, Special Service, Keesler Field, Miss.

  2 The phrase, the goose hangs high, is an Americanism, so marked by the DAE and traced to 1870. The DAE says that there is “no convincing evidence” that it is “a corruption of the goose honks high.” There was a discussion of it by various folk-etymologists in Trade Winds, Saturday Review of Literature, Sept. 4, 1943.

  3 The DAE’s first example is from the Boston Journal, Sept. 13, 1884. In Painting the Town Red, by T. F. Crane, Scientific Monthly, June, 1924, p. 605, it is shown that the phrase reached England (in Punch) by Jan. 24, 1885. Dr. Crane’s paper is a learned discussion of the under lying idea.

  1 Adjectives — and Other Words, by Ernest Weekley; London, 1930, p. 182; The American Language, by S. K. Ratcliffe, New Statesman and Nation, July 27, 1935, p. 131. Says Ratcliffe: “There is no doubt at all that American influence is fast changing our usage. Twenty years ago no one in England started in, started out or checked up; we did not stand for or fall for, as we do today.… We have learned from the American how to try out, but not as yet to curse out, and when we make out we are still deciphering something and not, as the American is, doing something fairly well. We may sometimes call down an offender, but we still refrain from bawling him out. Nor do we have things salted down.”

  2 In Studies in Stylistics, V, American Speech, Feb., 1929, p. 233, Mildred E. Lambert calls attention to the fact that when a verb-adverb combination is used the ensuing object appears in a prepositional phrase. Cf. “He can’t win his bet,” and “He can’t win out on his bet.”

  3 Neologisms, by Dwight L. Bolinger, American Speech, Feb., 1941, p. 66.

  4 Apparently a Variety invention. New Words For Old, Baltimore Evening Sun (editorial page), May 11, 1938.

  5 Brought in by the trolley-car and now obsolescent. See American Speech, Dec., 1940, p. 363.

  6 Suggested by an historic wrong-direction flight by an aviator named Corrigan, c. 1938. See As We Stroll Around, New Rochelle (N. Y.) Standard-Star, Sept. 1, 1938.

  7 I heard this masterpiece at a meeting of Negro Democrats in Chicago in 1940, just before the opening of the Democratic National Convention. They met to formulate their demands and grievances, and one of their speakers summarized the former as a desire to eat a little higher on the hog.

  8 New York, 1938, p. 49.

  1 Private communication, Aug. 17, 1943.

  2 I find unphased in Remembrances of the Mississippi, by T. B. Thorpe, Harper’s Magazine, Dec., 1855, p. 35.

  1 Publications of the Modern Language Association, March, 1944, p. 91. “The devotees of to enthuse,” wrote Dr. Louise Pound in American Speech, Jan., 1926, p. 247, “believe in the word as firmly as they do in the feeling it denotes, and employ it in their most serious writing or speaking. It is one of their greatly cherished words. Condemn it and you hurt their feelings. It would be impossible to persuade them to discard it.”

  2 Words and Their Uses; new ed.; New York, 1876, p. 207.

  3 Breaking Priscian’s Head; New York, 1929, p. 80.

  4 Say What You Mean; New York, 1944, p. 250. To enthuse, in its turn, has produced a shortened noun, thuse, in use at the University of West Virginia to designate a pep-meeting. American Speech, Feb., 1935, p. 35.

  1 Left News, March, 1939.

  2 Omaha World-Herald, Oct. 6, 1940: “Galacking is the business of collecting decorative greens, the term being derived from galax leaves.” I take this from American Speech, Feb., 1941, p. 31.

  3 O. Henry: The Four Million; New York, 1906, Ch. XIV.

  4 Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, March 10, 1926.

  5 From garrulous. Proposed in 1942 by Dr. James Francis Cooke, editor of the Étude.

  6 Ask Aesculapius, Forum, Jan., 1926, p. 9.

  7 From glamor. American Speech, Oct., 1937, p. 242.

  8 From author. American Speech, Dec., 1936, p. 374.

  9 From hokum. Associated Press dispatch, Oct. 30, 1938, reported in American Speech, Dec., 1939, p. 318. Saturday Review of Literature, June 15, 1940, reported in American Speech, Feb., 1941, p. 31.

  10 This lovely verb may be English. American Notes and Queries, Dec., 1941, p. 141, reports its appearance in a Home Guard instruction sheet. But I am told by Mr. Paul W. Kesten of the Columbia Broadcasting System that it is also used in the American Army.

  11 From martyr.

  12 From junction. American Speech, Feb., 1941, p. 31.

  13 Some Neologisms From Recent Magazines, by Robert Withington, American Speech, April, 1931, p. 280.

  14 From bishop. Outlook and Independent, Oct. 29, 1930, p. 328, recorded by Withington, just cited.

  15 Suggested by Dr. Milton Harris of New York in Book Marks For Today, New York World-Telegram, Dec. 17, 1931, and since often used, especially as televising.

  16 Often used by Variety and imitated by many newspaper writers on the movies.

  17 Candidates Queried, Oregon Daily
Journal (Portland), May 1, 1942, p. 10.

  18 Used in Dr. William A. Brady’s newspaper health column, Nov. 20, 1935, and recorded by American Speech, Dec., 1935, p. 315.

  19 Collectanea, American Speech, Oct., 1938, p. 236.

  20 For an interesting discussion of verbs of this class see Slipped Words: A Study of Back-Formations and Curtailments in Present-Day English, by Elisabeth Wittmann, Dialect Notes, Vol. IV, Part II, 1914, pp. 115–45.

  1 For to meal see the issue for June, 1928, p. 434; for to room that for Oct., 1927, p. 25, and for to fly that for Feb., 1928, p. 258.

  2 Rear Admiral W. A. Moffett in Flying Boats and Seaplanes, Liberty, Aug. 18, 1928, p. 46: “We could have the most efficient naval aviation service in the world, and still be helpless if there were no surface ships to transport, fuel and subsist them.” The verb, in fact, is old in this sense, and is traced by the DAE in American use to 1835, when it was used of Indians on reservations.

  3 Baltimore Post, Sept. 1, 1925. I am indebted here to Mr. Lewis George Lederer of Baltimore.

  4 He Danced Me, John o’ London’s Weekly, Nov. 5, 1937.

  5 I find the following in a review of a book called Life With Baby in the Journal of the American Medical Association, May 8, 1943: “The photographs portray various stages in bathing, dressing, feeding and sleeping a new baby.”

  6 As in “Do you belch the baby after giving it a bottle?” I am indebted here to Mr. R. Balfour Daniels of Edinburg, Texas.

  1 Mr. Bentley points for authority to Homeric Greek, by Clyde Pharr, third ed.; Boston, 1924, p. 277.

  2 Printer’s Ink, Feb. 18, 1944: “Current Borden Company advertisements urge housewives to ‘dessert your family with Borden’s Black Raspberry Rocky Road Ice Cream.’ This seems to be the first recorded use of this familiar term as a verb. Might be that the idea is worth extending to cover suggestions that the homemaker soup or cereal or meat or vegetable the folks. There are limitations though. For example, Borden might well hesitate — in view of the sensitiveness on the part of many husbands toward the little woman’s financial demands — to suggest publicly that the housewife milk her family.”