American Language Supplement 1

by H. L. Mencken

  1 The headline on this vocabulary, in the edition of the Stars and Stripes before me, is British Names Headache to Supply Men: GI Can is Dust Bin, Hot Water Bottle a Stomach Warmer. I am indebted here to Mr. J. F. Burke.

  2 One showing differences in the American and English names for various maintenance items was prepared for the Staff Officers’ School, and another on the same subject was published in the Quartermaster Review, March-April, 1943, by Col. Wayne Allen of the Quartermaster Corps. Dave Breger, the Army cartoonist, did one for the troops in general in the form of an illustrated alphabet beginning with absorbent cotton — cotton wool and running down to zee — zed.

  1 The Navy, Army and Air Forces Institutes. Partridge, in his Dictionary of Abbreviations; London, 1942, says that it conducts canteens and other service centers for soldiers and sailors. The name is often abbreviated to naafi, pronounced narfy or naffy.

  2 I have not seen the pamphlet, but take this from a notice of it in the London Evening Standard, Jan. 4, 1943.

  3 I am indebted here to Mr. J. W. Heenan, Under-Secretary for Internal Affairs in the New Zealand government, and to Mrs. Frances Trimble, of the New Zealand Legation at Washington.

  1 Both published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935 and 1939. This press, which is owned and operated by the university, is also the publisher of the New English Dictionary.

  2 Some of those in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage are noted in reviews of it in the Nation (New York), Oct. 9, 1935, p. 418; the Oxford Magazine, Oct. 17, 1935, pp. 10–14; American Speech, Dec., 1936, pp. 302–06; and Publications of the Modern Language Association, Jan., 1938, pp. 35–37. I have noted others myself. Horwill says that blind baggage means baggage carried in a blind car. He says that cleanse “is often preferred in America where clean would be used in England,” and cites street-cleansing department in support thereof. He says that Gentile, in America, “more commonly indicates” a non-Mormon than a non-Jew. He mistakes an accommodation train for one carrying both passengers and freight. He seems to be unaware that American freight-trains have conductors. He confuses hand-me-down and ready-made He neglects to give the chief meaning of hangover. He says that, in America, “home denotes a house inhabited by a single family.” He confuses trunk-line with main-line. And so on, and so on. But in a book of 360 double-column pages these errors are relatively rare, and not many of them are important.

  3 Some of the terms listed are discussed at greater length in other places.

  4 The NED says: Artium baccalaureus …, artium magister … in England are now written B.A., M.A.”

  5 U. S. and British Staff Officers Over-come Language Difficulties, by Milton Bracker, London correspondent of the New York Times, July 1, 1943.

  6 Advertisement in News of the World (London), Jan 23, 1938: “Why are you publishing this advert?”

  1 The DAE traces to admit to the bar to 1768 and marks it an Americanism.

  2 So used by the London Times in its daily announcements of advertising rates.

  3 Horwill says: “Aisle is used in England, except in a few dialects, only of a division of a church or of a passage between rows of pews. In America it may denote almost any kind of gangway, whether in a train (where it corresponds to the English corridor), or a theatre, or a shop.”

  4 The DAE traces almshouse in American use to 1662. Its forthright harshness early bred euphemisms, e.g., county-farm and infirmary. Poor-house is traced to 1785 and poor-farm to 1859. In England, according to Horwill, workhouse is being displaced by public assistance institution. It came in c. 1650 and was preceded by house of work, traced to 1552, and working-house, traced to 1597. Since 1653 workhouse has been used in America to designate a house of correction for minor offenders.

  5 The NED marks alumnus “U. S.”, and the DAE, which traces it to 1696, calls it an Americanism, but it seems to be making progress in the English colonies, if not in England. The Hong Kong University Alumni Association flourished before World War II, and issued an alumni magazine. (South China Morning Post, May 5, 1938). Alumna is widely used in the United States to designate a female college graduate. The DAE traces it to 1882.

  6 See A.B.

  7 Accident Touts May Be Penalized, London Daily Express, Sept. 28, 1936: “Another name for the accident tout business is ambulance-chasing.”

  8 The DAE traces anxious-bench to 1832, anxious-seat to 1835, mourners’-seat to 1845 and mourners’-bench to 1848, and marks them all Americanisms. The NED’s first example of penitent-form is from Hall Caine’s The Deemster, 1887.

  9 Americans Bound Coronationwards Should Read This Alphabet, London Daily Express, April 28, 1937: “Apartments are what you call rooms.”

  10 The DAE’s first example of apartment-hotel is dated 1902, and marked an Americanism.

  11 The DAE’s first example of apartment-house is dated 1876 and marked an Americanism. Block seems to be an Americanism also, but the English have been using it in the sense of a group of buildings since c. 1850.

  12 The DAE traces appropriation in this sense to 1761 and marks it an Americanism. Appropriation-bill is traced to 1789.

  1 Also commonly applied to what Americans call a garbage-can. Stars and Stripes, June 15, 1943: “A mess sergeant wanting a GI can wouldn’t find his swill-bucket listed in those words on a British maintenance list, but if he were well versed in British nomenclature he’d ask for a bin, dust.” Further on the Stars and Stripes listed: “Can, garbage — bin, dust.” I am indebted here to Mr. J. F. Burke. But see the Seaman list at the end of the last section.

  2 Mr. P. E. Cleator, of Wallasey, Cheshire: private communication, Sept. 28, 1936: “The name remains with us, but the cart is now an electrically-propelled vehicle. I venture that the old name will inevitably suffer a change.”

  3 Mr. Cleator tells me that bin-man is often used. See garbage-man.

  4 There are Englishmen willing to swear that scent-spray is archaic in England.

  5 An interesting account of the other terms in use in the early days of the automobile is in The Automobile and American English, by Theodore Hornberger, American Speech, April, 1930, pp. 271–78. This paper also discusses the names for parts and models. London Morning Post, Dec. 10, 1935: “Mr. Justice Bennett, in the Chancery Division, yesterday, criticised a man who described himself in an affidavit as an automobile engineer. Counsel said that he did not know what an automobile was. Mr. Justice Bennett: Nor do I, and nor does he, I expect.”

  6 Americans, of course, know the meaning of perambulator, and even of pram. Baby-carriage is not listed by the NED; its Supplement marks the term U. S., along with baby-coach. The DAE traces baby-carriage to 1882, and perambulator, in American use, to 1893. It does not list baby-coach. Before baby-carriage came in the American term was baby-wagon, traced by the DAE to 1853. The NED traces perambulator to 1857 and pram to 1884.

  7 Horwill says that in the United States luggage means empty baggage. But the term is often used in the English sense, and baggage is certainly not unknown in England. See AL4, p. 254. Also, see baggage-car, below. Also see The Growth of American English, by Sir William Craigie, S.P.E. Tract No. LVII; Oxford, 1940, p. 233.

  8 Mournful Numbers, by Colin Ellis; London, 1932:

  I’m certain we shall miss the train!

  Is all the luggage in the van?

  Oh, George, you’ve dropped that box again!

  I’m certain we shall miss the train —

  Well, don’t swear, if you are in pain —

  Oh, how I wish I were a man!

  I’m certain we shall miss the train!

  Is all the luggage in the van?”

  (Note the use of miss for the former English term, lose.)

  9 Regulations of the English Ministry of Transport, 1938: “All curves of less than 1,000 feet radius should be superelevated.”

  1 More often, of course, barmaid.

  2 I am indebted here to the late Sir E. Denison Ross: private communication, May 16, 1939.

  3 H. W. Seaman: “We go for
a bathe in the sea or a river or a swimming-pool. We take a bath in the bathtub. Bathe, verb or noun, always rhymes with lathe and bath with lath.” London Daily Mirror, Nov. 21, 1938: “Lady Morris, wherever she is, gets home in time to bath her babies.” Headlines in News of the World (London), June 12, 1936: “Doctor’s Last Bathe. Lost His Life After Disregarding Advice at Seaside.”

  4 This is disputed by many Englishmen, who say that a bath-robe and a dressing-gown differ in meaning, as with us. The NED’s first example of bathrobe is from the American Smart Set, 1895. Its first English example is dated 1924.

  5 London Daily Telegraph, March 26, 1936: “Beryl Mary Shelton Parker … was found with her head under water in the bath.” The DAE traces bathtub to 1870 and marks it an Americanism.

  6 Battery is also used in England.

  7 See bug. Bed-bug is traced by the DAE to 1808. Chinch is old in English, but has been mainly American for many years. As crazy as a bedbug is an Americanism, traced to 1832.

  8 Learn English Before You Go, by Frank Loxley Griffin, Atlantic Monthly, June, 1932, p. 775: “A bellhop will never bring you a pitcher of ice water, but a page can usually fetch a jug of iced water.” See pitcher.

  9 As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “Don’t embarrass the booking-clerk by asking him if he can change a fifty-dollar note for you; you mean a bill.” See ticket-agent.

  10 The DAE traces billboard to 1851 and marks it an Americanism. Hoarding is traced by the NED, as a builders’ term for a fence around a building under construction or repair, to 1823, but it apparently did not come into common use to designate a billboard until the 60s. It was apparently preceded by show-board, traced by the NED to 1806, and by posting-board. See Stolen Flowers, Harper’s Magazine, Sept., 1871.

  11 Oxford Mail, Oct. 14, 1942: “Seeing one of our soldiers unable to understand what a U. S. A. sergeant was asking him, I offered my services. It appeared that the American required a bill-folder [sic]. This stumped me for a minute or so, but at last I suggested it might be a wallet he required. This proved to be correct when I displayed my own.” The learned Englishman’s use of to stump will be noted. It is an Americanism and is traced by the DAE to 1812.

  1 Chicago Tribune, Aug. 13, 1923: “A milliard, in the American language, is a billion”

  2 Chinese Mail (Hong Kong), Dec. 19, 1938: “The game so popular in army circles in Hong Kong under the name of tombola is now sweeping South London as a craze called housey-housey. It is played for the most part by housewives who are attracted to open-door booths by a glittering display of cutlery and chromium-plated clocks.” The article then proceeds to describe the method of playing what Americans call bingo. Bingo is a form of lotto, traced by the NED to 1778. Bingo is listed by Grose, 1785, as thieves’ cant for “brandy or other spirituous liquor” and “a dram drinker.”

  3 See soda-biscuit.

  4 Headline in London Daily Telegraph, Oct. 12, 1936: “Life Preserver For ‘Self-Defence.’ ” The DAE traces blackjack to 1895 and marks it an Americanism.

  5 As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “During the voyage the purser will send out at least one form to be filled in, but to the Americans it will be a blank to be filled out.”

  6 The King’s English, by Wayne Allen, Quartermaster Review (Washington), March-April, 1943, p. 58: “A torch, blow, is a lamp, brazing.”

  7 The NED says that deals now commonly means fir or pine cut in planks not more than three inches thick.

  8 Mr. P. E. Cleator tells me that both terms are commonly used in the plural. See shoe.

  9 Aids To the Talkies, by D. W. B(rogan), Oxford Magazine, Oct. 17, 1935: “Boulevard, for arterial road, can be illustrated from North Britain.” London Times Literary Supplement, Aug. 23, 1934, p. 570: “Milton described in ‘Paradise Lost’ the modern ideal of an arterial road — ‘a passage broad, smooth, easy.’ ”

  10 London Leader, March 27, 1943: “We have yet to call … a chucker-out a bouncer.”

  11 H. W. Seaman: “Your game of bowls, played in an alley, is called skittles here, and is played in a skittle-alley. Our game of bowls is played on a green, which is a lawn.” In the United States bowling is commonly used, not bowls.

  12 Industrial Coinage, Nation’s Business, June, 1942, quoting This Fascinating Railroad Business, by Robert S. Henry; New York, 1942.

  13 I am indebted here to Mrs. Pieter Juiliter of Scotia, N. Y.

  14 Grilled, of course, is known in the United States.

  15 Pail is also used in the United States.

  1 Bug in England, has acquired the special meaning of bed-bug, and is thus avoided. See AL4, p. 310. American As She Is Spoke, by Eric Partridge, London Observer, Sept. 8, 1935: “Citizens of the United States have often offended English ears with their use of bug.”

  2 The Al Smith Building, in England, would be Smith House. “In America,” says Horwill, “a structure bearing the name of house would be understood to be a hotel.” But this use of house for hotel is going out.

  3 I am indebted here to Mr. P. A. Browne.

  4 Bureau, in this sense, is traced by the DAE to 1751 and marked an Americanism. It is also used in the United States in the sense of what the English call a government office, as in Weather Bureau. In this sense the DAE traces it to 1831. Chest of drawers has some vogue in the United States, but is used chiefly of an antique.

  5 London Leader, March 27, 1943: “Our lounge suits are their sack suits.” Sack suit, seldom used, is traced by the DAE to 1895, and marked an Americanism. Business suit is traced to 1880.

  6 The DAE traces caboose to 1862, but it must be older. The term, which comes from the Dutch kabuis, has been used for many years to designate a cooking galley on the deck of a merchant ship.

  7 Please Speak English, by Dale Warren, Seven Seas, Spring, 1939, p. 26: “You go to a rank, not a stand, to get a taxi.”

  8 But Horwill says that calendar is used in England in the criminal courts. It is used in Congress to designate the official agenda — what is known in Parliament as the order paper.

  9 Industrial Coinage, Nation’s Business, June, 1942, quoting This Fascinating Railroad Business, by Robert S. Henry; New York, 1942.

  10 In England, says Horwill, can means a vessel for holding liquids, but it seems to be ousting tin for other purposes. A Truck by Any Other Name, by Robert Lynd; London News Chronicle, May 22, 1943: “I hate to see the Food Ministry constantly using the word canned where the traditional English word is tinned.”

  11 As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “All sweets, even chocolates, are candy or candies.” But the English use sugar-candy to designate what Americans call rock-candy, and Mr. James E. Walker, chief librarian of the London Public Libraries, tells me that candy, in its American sense, is “in common use in Durham and Northumberland.”

  12 Or, confectioner’s.

  1 In England cane is used for a very slender stick.

  2 Lord Harewood in the London Daily Telegraph, July 2, 1936: “We should like to see these fun-fairs run in such a manner that they are not eye-sores to the neighbourhood.”

  3 Carrousel, which is a loan from the French, has nothing to do with the word carousal, meaning a drinking-bout or other orgy.

  4 The DAE shows that Harvard issued a catalogue so early as 1682.

  5 The DAE traces catnip to 1712 and marks it an Americanism. French: herbe du chat; German: katzenmünze. H. W. Seaman: “Our movie-trained smarties write glibly of poison-ivy and catnip without knowing what the words mean. Catnip has no commercial value here. I have asked several druggists and none has heard of its use as a kitten’s hooch.”

  6 News of the World (London), Oct. 23, 1938: “Mrs. Maude Booth, of Ipswich, has been forbidden ever again to enter ’a shop known as a stores’. The ban was placed on her when she was put on probation for two years on a conviction for stealing two bars of soap from a multi
ple stores.” But since c. 1930 chain-store has been in increasing use in England. Headline in the Sunderland Echo, Jan. 15, 1940: “Mammoth R.A.F. Chain-Store.” See five-and-ten. Also, see the Seaman list at the end of the last section.

  7 Do You Speak American?, by John Blunt, London Daily Mail, Aug. 17, 1932: “When you want to pay your bill you ask for a check.”

  8 The DAE finds checkers in the letter-book of Samuel Sewall for 1712. The NED traces draughts to c. 1300. Mr. James E. Walker, before cited, tells me that checkers is in use in the north of England.

  9 Please Speak English, by Dale Warren, Seven Seas, Spring, 1939, p. 26: “A left-luggage office is simply a place where you check your bag.”

  10 The NED traces cheese-cloth, in English use, to 1741, but it had appeared in America, as the DAE shows, in 1657. Butter-muslin seems to be relatively recent in England.

  11 Chicken is an old word in English, traced by the NED to c. 950, and Apperson reports an early form of the proverb, “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched,” in 1577. But the English, in general, use the term only to indicate very young fowl. In the United States it may designate an old rooster or hen. The DAE traces chicken-pie to 1733. chicken-soup to 1816, chicken-house and -yard to 1853, chicken-feed to 1865, chicken-salad to 1888 and chicken-dinner to 1896. All are Americanisms.

  1 American and English, by Claude de Crespigny, American Speech, June, 1926, p. 492: “The City Hall, to an Englishman, is a town hall, a guild hall, or in the case of the London County Council, a Spring Gardens.”

  2 Advertisement in the London Morning Post, May 21, 1938, with a picture of a clapboarded house: “Walls: cedar shiplap.” The DAE marks clapboard an Americanism and traces it to 1637.

  3 News of the World (London) June 12, 1938: “There is to be an office slum clearance — a mass attack on the thousands of insanitary and overcrowded offices which abound in London.… Every local authority [must make] returns showing the extent of the cleansing campaign.” In Dublin the street-cleaning department is called the cleansing department. (Cleanliness, Irish Times, Dec. 30, 1939).