American Language

by H. L. Mencken

  77 The first State to electrocute criminals was New York. The act substituting electrocution for hanging became effective Jan. 1, 1889, and the first criminal electrocuted was William Kemmler, on Aug. 6, 1890. To electrocute, at the start, had a rival in to electrize, but soon prevailed.

  78 To combust seems to be an invention of dealers in heating apparatus, or, as they prefer to call themselves, heating-engineers. I find the following in an advertisement in the Chicago Herald and Examiner, Sept. 16, 1923: “There’d be no warning of exhausted coal deposits if fuel were properly combusted.”

  79 I say these verbs are still on probation, but if their constant use in the debates of Congress gives them countenance they are quite sound American. My earliest example of to enthuse comes from a solemn war-time speech by the late Senator Lee S. Overman or North Carolina, made in the Senate on March 26, 1918. He used it not once, but over and over again. See the Congressional Record for that date, pp. 4376–7. To resolute was used by Senator L. Y. Sherman of Ohio on Jan. 14, 1918, and by Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana on May 16, 1921. To peeve was used by Mr. Borland of Missouri in the House Jan. 29, 1918, and has been used by other Representatives countless times since. So have to reminisce, to orate and to insurge.

  80 Clipped Words, Dialect Notes, Vol. IV, Pt. II, 1914, p. 137.

  81 There is an old English verb, to interview, meaning to meet, but it has been obsolete since the Seventeenth Century. The modern verb seems to have arisen in the United States soon after the Civil War, along with its noun. The latter has gone into French, and in 1923 the Academie Française voted to include it in the next edition of its Dictionary. On Dec. 31, 1884, in the course of a review of the year, the Pall Mall Gazette (London) said that “among the permanent gains of the year the acclimatization of the interview in English journalism certainly should be mentioned.”

  82 See Loadened, by J. D., American Speech, Aug., 1930. The author calls attention to the fact that verbs properly in -en sometimes take a double past participle, e.g., awe-strickened and ladened. For to safen see American Speech, April, 1931, p. 305. It appears in the sentence: “Let us safen your brakes.”

  83 To oslerize quickly acquired a meaning that greatly embarrassed Dr. Osier. What he said was: “Study until twenty-five, investigation until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance.” But to oslerize came to mean to put a man to death as useless, and the age recommended was commonly understood to be forty.

  84 I had hardly got this paragraph on paper when someone sent me a copy of the Literary Supplement of the London Times for June 7, 1934, with the ghastly verb to obituarize marked with a red circle. Worse, I discovered on investigation that it was in the Oxford Dictionary, credited to the London Saturday Review for Oct. 17, 1891. If I may intrude my private feelings into a learned work I venture to add that seeing a monster so suggestive of American barbarism in the Times affected me like seeing an archbishop wink at a loose woman.

  85 To service was used by R. L. Stevenson in Catriona (1893), but it remained a nonce-word until American garages began servicing cars, c. 1910. It is now in almost universal use among the persons who keep machinery and fixtures in repair. See American Speech, Nov., 1926, p. 112, and Jan., 1927, p. 214. Used by Mr. Justice Roberts, it appears in the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. vs. Bezue, Jan. 25, 1932 (52 Supreme Court Reporter, 206).

  86 Senator L. Y. Sherman of Illinois, Congressional Record, Jan. 4, 1918, p. 903.

  87 After the passage of the War Revenue Act of 1917 cigar-boxes began to bear this inscription: “The contents of this box have been taxed-paid … as indicated by the Internal Revenue tax stamp affixed.” A year or so later taxed-paid was changed to taxpaid. Prosecutions for the sale, transportation or possession of untaxpaid alcoholic beverages are now common in the Federal courts.

  88 During the heyday of Babbittry (c. 1905–29) to contact was one of its counter-words. In 1931 Mr. F. W. Lienau, an official of the Western Union, forbade its use by employés of the company. “Somewhere,” he said, “there cumbers this fair earth with his loathsome presence a man who, for the common good, should have been destroyed in early childhood. He is the originator of the hideous vulgarism of using contact as a verb. So long as we can meet, get in touch with, make the acquaintance of, be introduced to, call on, interview or talk to people, there can be no apology for contact.” See the Commonweal, Dec. 9, 1931, p. 145. But Mr. Lienau’s indignation had no effect, and to contact is still widely used.

  89 To yes seems to have originated in Hollywood, where every movie personage is surrounded by a suite of sycophants. These sycophants are called yes-men.

  90 To loan was once good English, and the Oxford Dictionary gives examples going back to c. 1200, but it has been supplanted in England by to lend and the Oxford calls it “now chiefly U. S.” Here it rages almost unchallenged. It has even got into the text of laws. See Congressional Record, Dec. 19, 1921, p. 592, col. 2.

  91 To author, I suspect, was first used in Variety. But I have found it in the Editor and Publisher (Aug. 27, 1927, p. 7, col. 4).

  92 To signature apparently has the imprimatur of the Postoffice. See Observations on the Duties of Contact Men As Applied to the Postoffice Department Organization, by John H. Bartlett, First Assistant Postmaster General; Cleveland (Postoffice Printing Department), 1924, p. 1.

  93 To park is in Piers Plowman, C-Text, 143, c. 1390: “Among wives and widows I am wont to sit, y-parked in pews.” But as Dr. Louise Pound points out in American Speech, May, 1927, it then meant to be enclosed, shut up, confined. In the sense of to arrange artillery or wagons in a park it came into English during the Napoleonic wars, apparently influenced by French example. Its modern vogue, and great extension of meaning, came in with the automobile. In the United States, as Dr. Pound says, one may now park a child with a neighbor, or a suitcase in a cloak-room, or jewelry in a vault.

  94 Used in the theatre in the sense of to display photographs or lithographs in a theatre lobby.

  95 Used by department-stores in the sense of to sell at a clearance sale. See American Speech, Dec., 1926, p. 163.

  96 New York World-Telegram, March 11, 1932, under the heading of Mayor Won’t Ride Horse.

  97 From New Thought, the name of a curious mixture of faith-healing, amateurish psychology and pseudo-oriental “philosophy,” much patronized by persons moving either in or out of Christian Science. From its organ, the Nautilus for Jan., 1926, American Speech for April, 1926 quotes: “So I lost no time in trying to New Thought our way out of debt.”

  98 To accession, used by American librarians in the sense of to acquire a book, is said to have been invented by the late Melvil Dewey (1851–1931). See a letter signed J. W. R. on the editorial page of the New York Times, March 27, 1932.

  99 Semi-Centennial Anniversary Book, University of Nebraska; Lincoln, Neb., 1919, p. 43. The verb seems to be making headway in competition with the more raffish to janit and to jan.

  100 Used by the Gideon Society, an organization of pious traveling salesmen, to denote the act of outfitting a hotel with Bibles for the consolation of its guests.

  101 I find the following in the New International Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Vol. XIV, p. 674, col. 1, 1917: “The aboriginal tribes are chiefly Bhils, who are animists, though many have been censused as Hindus.” The editors of the second edition of the New International were Talcott Williams, dean of the School of Journalism at Columbia University, and the well-known essayist, Frank Moore Colby.

  102 Mr. John S. Grover, of the Portland, Ore., Journal, sends in an addition that may be with us tomorrow. It is to monoxide, meaning to poison with carbon monoxide gas. In August, 1935, one Wells sued an automobile company in the Circuit Court for Multnomah county, Oregon, on the ground that he had been monoxided through its carelessness in repairing the heater on his car. Another likely candidate is to stench, meaning to empty a movie theatre by setting off stink-bombs. It is a device often employ
ed by moving-picture operators on strike.

  103 See Mealed, by Anne E. Perkins, American Speech, June, 1928, p. 434, and Roomed, by Willa Roberts, American Speech, Oct., 1927, p. 25. Another analogue, to subsist, meaning to provide provender, is to be found in Flying Boats and Sea-Planes, by Rear Admiral W. A. Moffett, U. S. N., Liberty, Aug. 18, 1928, p. 46.

  104 See The Art and Practise of Medical Writing, by George H. Simmons, editor emeritus of the Journal, and Morris Fishbein, its present editor; Chicago, 1925, p. 43. The learned authors explain that to operate a patient really means to work him, and that the connotations thereof are embarrassing to the profession. But Marion L. Morse shows in The Verb Operate, American Speech, April, 1930, that they explain in vain. Miss Morse investigated the usage of nurses. Of those “doing their work out of hospitals for about five years or more,” only 12% used to operate; the rest used to operate on or upon. But of those still in training, 50% used to operate, thus showing the trend of hospital usage. The medical brethren, in general, reveal a fondness for new verbs. Nearly all of them use to intern and to special (signifying service as a special nurse), to wassermann and to cys-toscope, and many also use to blood count and to x-ray. Drs. Simmons and Fishbein report the use of to obstetricate, and I have myself encountered to diagnosticate. (Weekly Bulletin, New York City Department of Health, May 22, 1926, p. 81.)

  105 The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin for March 10, 1926 reports its use in court proceedings that day by District Attorney Charles Edwin Fox, and says that he thereby “coined a new word.” But it was actually used before 1926. The proper chiropractic term is to adjust.

  106 To goose does not appear in any of the dictionaries in its common American sense, which is known to every schoolboy.

  107 In S.P.E. Tracts, No. XIX, 1925.

  108 They are common in English, too, and Samuel Johnson called attention to them in the preface to his Dictionary, but they are much more numerous in American. See Thought and Language, by P. B. Ballard; London, 1934, p. 167.

  109 Mr. L. G. Lederer of Baltimore calls my attention to a rather curious transitive use of to go, noted in the Baltimore Post for Sept. 1, 1925: “Next Summer we’ll probably see traffic cops stopping and going the entrants.”

  110 To dope out: Mr. Hamlin of Missouri in the House, Jan. 19, 1918, p. 1154. To fall down: Mr. Kirby of Arkansas in the Senate, Jan. 24, 1918, p. 1291, and Mr. Lewis of Illinois, in the Senate, June 6, 1918, p. 8024. To jack up: Mr. Weeks of Massachusetts in the Senate, Jan. 17, 1918, p. 988. To come across: Mr. Borland of Missouri in the House, May 4, 1917, p. 1853. To butt in: Mr. Snyder of New York in the House, Dec. 11, 1917.

  111 See Simile and Metaphor in American Speech, by B. Q. Morgan, American Speech, Feb., 1926.

  112 See Scribes Seek Snappy Synonyms, by Maurice Hicklin, American Speech, Dec., 1930. Mr. Hicklin lists 70 headline verbs.

  113 Words and Their Uses, new ed.; New York, 1876, p. 264. This book was made up of articles contributed to the New York Galaxy during 1867, ’68 and ’69.

  114 In 1929 N. R. French, C. W. Carter, Jr., and Walter Koenig, Jr., of the staff of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, undertook a statistical study of the words used in telephone conversations. Their material embraced 79,390 words used in 1900 conversations. They reported that will was used as an auxiliary 1,305 times in 402 conversations, but that shall was used but 6 times in 6 conversations. See a discussion of the matter in Grammar and Usage in Textbooks on English, by Robert C. Pooley; Madison, Wis., 1933, p. 60. The French-Carter-Koenig report has been published as The Words and Sounds of Telephone Conversations, Bell System Technical Journal, April, 1930.

  115 Oxford, 1926, p. 526.

  116 2nd ed., Oxford, 1908, pp. 133–154.

  117 Current Definition of Levels in English Usage, by S. A. Leonard and H. Y. Moffett, English Journal, May, 1927.

  118 P. W. Joyce says flatly in English As We Speak It in Ireland, 2nd ed.; London, 1910, p. 77, that, “like many another Irish idiom this is also found in American society chiefly through the influence of the Irish.” At all events, the Irish example must have reinforced it. In Ireland “Will I light the fire, ma’am?” is colloquially sound.

  119 Shall and Will, American Speech, Aug., 1929, p. 498. He quotes The Rules of Common School Grammars, by C. C. Fries, Publications of the Modern Language Association, March, 1927, to the effect that “the first statement that will is differently used in the first person and in the second and third is in a grammar of English written in Latin by Johannis Wallis and first published in 1653. From this book it was copied frequently by the imitative grammarians of the Eighteenth Century, and has been swallowed with eyes shut by most of the writers of common-school grammars, handbooks of correct English, and the like ever since.”

  120 In her Tendencies in Modern American Poetry; New York, 1917, Amy Lowell takes Carl Sandburg and Edgar Lee Masters to task for constantly using will for shall, and says that they share the habit “with many other modern American writers.” See also Text, Type and Style, by George B. Ives; Boston, 1921, p. 289 ff.

  121 Lectures on the English Language, 4th ed.; New York, 1870, p. 659.

  122 Compare Matthew XVI, 13: “When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” See also Modern English Usage, by H. W. Fowler, above cited, p. 723, and Chapters on English, by Otto Jespersen; London, 1918, p. 52.

  123 For an interesting discussion of aren’t see a letter by H. E. Boot in English, June, 1920, p. 376, and one by Daniel Jones in the same periodical, Aug.–Sept., 1920, p. 399.

  124 A common direction to drivers and locomotive engineers. The English form is slow down. I note, however, that “drive slowly” is in the taxi-cab shed at the Pennsylvania Station, in New York. See also Chapter IX, Section 6.

  125 This splitting is defended eloquently by one of the most distinguished of American grammarians, George O. Curme, in The Split Infinitive, American Speech, May, 1927. He argues that it often helps to clarify the meaning. Thus “He failed completely to understand it” differs in meaning from “He failed to completely understand it.” “Grammatical instruction in our schools,” says Dr. Curme sagely, “might become a power and mighty interesting to students if it ceased to be a study of rules and became a study of the English language as something fashioned by the English people and still being shaped by the present generation. It will give a thrill to English-speaking students to discover that the English language does not belong to the school teacher but belongs to them and that its future destiny will soon rest entirely in their hands.” See also Syntax, by Dr. Curme; Boston, 1931, p. 455 ff, and The Split Infinitive, by H. W. Fowler, S.P.E. Tracts, No. XV, 1923.

  126 Good English, p. 59.

  127 For example, see the Congressional Record, May 14, 1918, p. 6996.

  128 Principality of Monaco vs. State of Mississippi, May 21, 1934. (54 S. Ct. R., 748 note).

  129 Current Definition of Levels in English Usage, cited in Section 3, above.

  130 The American Spirit in Literature, by Bliss Perry; New Haven, 1918, p. 117.

  131 The English Language; New York, 1912, p. 79.

  132 Common, that is, in England. An American would use “to take a matter up.”

  133 The Question of Our Speech; Boston, 1905, p. 30. See also Dialect Notes, Vol. IV, Pt. I, 1913, p. 48.

  134 Americanisms Old and New; London, 1889, p. 1.

  135 Mr. Carr published an account of his discovery in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 20, 1934.

  136 See O.K. at Ninety-Five, Boston Transcript (editorial), April 15, 1935. It occurred in a report of a Democratic meeting in New York, in the interest of Martin Van Buren’s renomination for a second term. The Transcript’s correspondent said that “the tail of the Democratic party, the roarers, butt-enders, ringtails, O.K.’s … and indomitables talked strong about Nullification and all that.” “The allusion,” says the Transcript editorial of 1935, “was probably to those who p
ut their O.K. on the nomination of Van Buren.”

  137 In a report of a Whig convention held at Worcester on June 19. “The band of the delegation from Barre,” said the Atlas, “rode in a stage which had a barrel of hard-cider on the baggage-rack, marked with large letters O.K. — oil korrect.”

  138 I take this from the Louisville Herald-Post, Feb. 26, 1932.

  139 This comes from a letter signed L. M., dated Calgary, March 4, 1935, and published in the Vancouver Sun. For it I am indebted to Mr. J. A. Macdonald, of the Sun staff.

  140 For this I am indebted to Mr. John D. Forbes, of San Francisco.

  141 See Topical Tittle-tattle, by Tatler, Sidmouth (England) Observer, March 27, 1935, and O.K. — Time Saver, by John Gait, New York American, March 22, 1935. Unfortunately for this theory, there were no telegraph operators until 1844, and O.K., as we have seen, had been used in 1840.

  142 O.K. No Mystery, by Frank A. Kellman, New York American, March 20, 1935.

  143 Derivation of O.K., by Wilfrid White, London Daily Telegraph, March 7, 1935. Mr. White quotes an anonymous poem, Poor Robin, of 1676: “Hoacky is brought home with Hollwin” [Hollowe’en]. “There is also,” he says, “a long poem by Herrick, entitled The Hock Cart, or Harvest Home. It seems but a short step from hoacky, signifying the satisfactory completion of harvesting, to the snappy O.K. of today.”

  144 Presidential candidate is probably an error for President. Jackson was elected for his first term in 1828. Smith did not begin to write his Letters of Major Downing until the early 30’s.

  145 “What has been my horror,” wrote Mrs. Nicholas Murray Butler to the London Daily Telegraph, March 6, 1935, “to hear O.K. used in an English drawing-room, and, worse still, to find it in the Oxford Dictionary!”

  146 Butte (Mont.) Standard, Oct. 11, 1929.

  147 Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 6, 1929. See also Okeh: Legenden um ein Modewort, by A. J. Storfer, Vos-sische Zeitung (Berlin), Sept. 3, 1933. For the sake of the record I add the following from the New York World-Telegram’s report of the Hauptmann-Lindbergh trial, Jan. 23,1935: “Pincus Fisch, brother of the late mysterious Isidor Fisch, Hauptmann’s tubercular friend, has learned to say okay. It is now his answer for everything.”