1 Many titles are listed in Burke’s bibliography. For what follows I have resorted mainly to Hobo Cant, by F. H. Sidney, Dialect Notes, Vol. V, Part II, 1919, pp. 41–42; Hobo Lingo, by Nicholas Klein, American Speech, Sept. 1926, pp. 650–53; The Argot of the Vagabond, by Charlie Samolar, the same, June, 1927, pp. 385–92; More Hobo Lingo, by Howard F. Barker, the same, Sept., 1927, p. 506; The Vocabulary of Bums, by Vernon W. Saul, alias K. C. Slim, the same, June, 1929, pp. 337–46; Junglese, by Robert T. Oliver, the same, June, 1932, p. 41; Bowery Terms, by H. E. Baronian, Hobo News, various dates from 1941 onward; A Dictionary of American Tramp and Underworld Slang, by Godfrey Irwin; London, 1931; Boy and Girl Tramps of America, by Thomas Minehan; New York, 1934; The Hobo, by Nels Anderson; Chicago, 1923; various articles by John Chapman in the New York Daily News, 1937–38; Sister of the Road, by Ben L. Reitman; New York, 1937, and the well-known books about tramps by Josiah Flynt (Willard).
1 Apparently of English origin.
2 An ancient word of varied meaning. It once meant to play truant, then to peddle things obtained free (e.g., blackberries or wild salads), then to slink along, and finally to beg.
3 Now extended in common usage to mean anything obtained free, e.g., a release by a press-agent. Partridge calls it American, and says that it reached England c. 1920.
4 i.e., the steel framework under a freight-car.
5 Cf. AL4, p. 221, n. 1. It seems probable that the spread of hoosegow from the Mexican border was effected by hoboes.
6 Samolar, before cited, says that this “was coined by Boston Mary, a notorious female hobo.”
7 Traced to 1883 by the DAE and marked an Americanism.
8 In the general sense of to acquire something by putting forth effort, to collect, to get together, to forage around for to rustle is traced by the DAE to c. 1846. To rustle cattle, i.e., to steal them, is not found before 1893.
9 Applied derisively by members of the I. W. W. (wobblies) to migratory workers who refused to join their one-big-union.
10 Possibly from cache.
11 Samolar, before cited, says that the buzzard is “the lowest thing in Vagabondia” – next to the mission-stiff, who lives by getting converted at city missions. Says H. F. Kane in A Brief Manual of Beggary, New Republic, July 15, 1936: “Beggars who indulge in such hypocrisy and those who habitually frequent the Salvation Army headquarters and various missions represent the lowest and most unethical type of our profession.”
1 Said to be not from the town name, but from purée.
2 I take all these names of specialists from Sister of the Road, by Ben L. Reitman, before cited, pp. 300–301.
3 From mushroom. Partridge traces it to 1821 in England.
4 I am indebted here to The Beggars are Coming, by Meyer Berger, New Yorker, March 11, 1939.
5 See The Language of Homosexuality, by G. Legman, in Sex Variants, by P. W. Henry; New York, 1941, Vol. II, pp. 1149–79.
1 I take these from Underworld Place-Names, by D. W. Maurer, American Speech, Oct., 1940, pp. 340–42, and More Underworld Place-Names, by the same, the same. Feb., 1942, pp. 75–76. Some of the nicknames of railroads are listed in AL4, p. 582.
2 Charles J. Lovell, who has found examples earlier than the DAE’s first, suggests that the word may be from the Chinese or some Indian language. He says that it apparently originated in the Seattle-Tacoma area.
3 See AL4, p. 156 and Supplement I. pp. 314–15.
1 “Junker Lingo,” By-Product of Underworld Argot, American Speech, April, 1933, pp. 27–28; The Argot of the Underworld Narcotic Addict, the same, April, 1936, pp. 116–27, and Oct., 1938, pp. 179–92; Narcotic Argot, the same, Oct., 1936, p. 222; Speech of the Narcotic Underworld, American Mercury, Feb., 1946, pp. 225–29, and Marijuana Addicts and Their Lingo, American Mercury, pp. 571–75.
2 Jargon of Marihuana Addicts, American Speech, Oct., 1940, pp. 336–37.
3 Addenda to “Junker Lingo,” American Speech, Oct., 1933, pp. 3–34.
4 Really the Blues; New York, 1946.
5 Tea For a Viper, New Yorker, March 12, 1938, pp. 47–50.
6 See Supplement I, p. 346, for coke as an abbreviation of Coca-Cola.
1 I take some of these from The Weed, Time, July 19, 1943, pp. 54–56. See also Marihuana Intoxication, by Walter Bromberg, American Journal of Psychiatry, Sept., 1934. I am indebted here to Dr. Roger S. Cohen, of Washington.
2 Mr. Hugh Morrison calls my attention to the fact that reefer is probably derived from the Mexican Spanish grifa or grifo, which is defined in Francisco J. Santamaria’s Diccionario General de Americanismos; City of Mexico, 1942, as meaning “la persona intoxicada de drogas como la marihuana, la morfina o la cocaina.” It was brought to the United States, along with marihuana itself, by Mexicans, who have a tendency, says Mr. Morrison, “to elide the g at the beginning of a word.” The result was reefa, whence reefer, though Maurer says that among American addicts greefo survives as the name of the dried drug, which is also muggles, bo-bo bush or potiguaya. The cigarette is always a reefer. Webster 1934 and the DAE prefer the spelling marijuana, but Santa-maria gives marihuana.
3 Berger, before cited, p. 47.
1 Pharmacist Sentenced for Sale of Pentobarbital, Journal of the American Medical Association, June 17, 1944.
2 Prostitutes and Criminals Argots, American Journal of Sociology, Jan., 1939, p. 546.
3 Berrey and Van den Bark list many other terms, but most of them seem to be nonce-words or localisms.
4 Peter Tamony says in the San Francisco News-Letter and Wasp, Feb. 24, 1939, that in that city they are called B-girls, and derives the term from to buzz or to put the bee on, both meaning to wheedle money.
1 The Alexandria (Mo.) Commercial, June 22, 1876, reported the hanging of Bill Lee for the murder of Jessie McCarty, one of the crew of a Mississippi gun-boat. I am indebted for this to Mr. Franklin J. Meine, editor of Nelson’s Encyclopedia.
2 I take most of these from The Language of the Lots, in Hey, Rube, by Bert J. Chipman; Hollywood (Calif.), 1933, pp. 193–97.
3 Carnival Cant; a Glossary of Circus and Carnival Slang, American Speech, June, 1931, pp. 327–37.
4 Circus Words, American Mercury, Nov., 1931, pp. 351–54.
5 A Circus List, American Speech, Feb., 1926, pp. 282–283; More About the Language of the Lot, the same, June, 1928, pp. 413–15.
6 Carnival Slang, American Speech, Feb., 1928, pp. 253–54.
7 Masters of the Midway, New Yorker, Aug. 12, 1939, pp. 21–25.
8 Circus Slang, Pittsburgh Courier, March 20 and 27, 1943.
9 Lefty’s Notebook, Variety, April 7, 1943.
10 Mysteries of the Carnival Language, American Mercury, June, 1936, pp. 227–31.
1 Apparently from chandelier.
2 The origin of this term still puzzles etymologists. For some of their guesses see AL4, p. 188. In American Speech, Oct., 1945, pp. 184–86, Atcheson L. Hench suggested that it might come from a sea term meaning a small West Indian craft of odd rig, apparently a loan from the Carib through the Spanish. But the connection between this ballyhoo and the circus ballyhoo remains to be established. For the following I am indebted to Mr. Edw. J. Kavanagh, of New York: “In the 40s and 50s many of the traveling tent-shows were conducted by roving Irishmen who spoke both Gaelic and English. In those days the barker had two duties: to talk up the show and to pass the hat. The Gaelic word for collect is bailinghadh, pronounced ballyoo (dissyllable) by Munster speakers and bállyoo by Connacht speakers. At intervals in the show would be heard the cry, Bailinghadh anois (Collection now).” Other notes on ballyhoo are in American Speech, Feb., 1936, pp. 101 and 102.
3 “Ringmaster,” says Milburn, “is unknown to circus parlance. The stilted phraseology of the press-agent has influenced circus speech, and high-sounding words are often used in preference to simple ones.”
1 The English showmen have an entirely different vocabulary. Specimens of it are given in Circus Slang, by Pegasus, World’s Fair (London), Apri
l 3, 1937, and What is an Auguste?, London Observer, Dec. 15, 1935. The technical vocabulary of tumblers is given in School for Tumblers, New Yorker, Feb. 26, 1938, pp. 16–17. That of the roller-skating rinks is in They’re Taking the Kinks Out of Rinks, by Pete Martin, Saturday Evening Post, May 13, 1944, p. 89.
1 I am indebted here to Mr. William J. Sachs (Bill Baker), who conducts the Pipes for Pitchmen department in the Billboard. Many pitchmen’s terms are given in Something for Nothing, by John J. Flynn, Collier’s, Oct. 8, 1932, pp. 15–48; The Billboard: Miscellaneous Entertainment, by Alva Johnston, New Yorker, Sept. 12, 1936, pp. 31–36; Alagazam, by N. T. Oliver (Nevada Ned), as told to Wesley Winans Stout, Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 19, 1929, pp. 26–80; About Carnivals and Pitchmen, by Irving Baltimore, Editor, Dec. 2, 1916, p. 518; Pitchmen, by Maurice Zolotow, Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 25, 1943, pp. 12–13 and 37–39; Pitchmen Find Business Terrible, Life, July 31, 1939, p. 24; Step Closer, Gents, by William D. O’Brien, New York World-Telegram, July 6, 1936, and Pitchman’s Cant, by Ruth Mulvey, American Speech, April, 1942, pp. 89–93. The last is not without errors. The English pitchmen, who call themselves grafters, have a quite different vocabulary. Many of its terms are in The Grafters’ Corner, by Semi-Detached (Arthur Pearson), World’s Fair, Jan. 17, 1942, and some are reprinted in the Billboard, June 26, 1943, pp. 59–60.
2 In The Origin of Phoney, American Speech, April, 1937, pp. 108–110, Peter Tamony offers strong evidence that it came originally from fawney, traced in England to 1781, but the dictionaries continue to mark it “origin uncertain.” Fawney seems to be derived from Gaelic fáinne, a ring. In Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, third ed., 1796, fawney rig (not ring) is defined as: “A common fraud, thus practised: A fellow drops a brass ring, double gilt, which he picks up before the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he disposes of it for less than its supposed, and ten times more than its real value.” Partridge says that the use of fawney or phoney in the general sense of fraudulent originated in the United States, and was naturalized in England c. 1920. In The American Tramp, Contemporary Review, Aug., 1891, p. 253, Josiah Flynt listed fawney man as a seller of bogus jewelry. I am indebted here to Mr. Edgar Gahan, of Westmount, Quebec. For other proposed etymologies see AL4, p. 187. Also, see Supplement I, p. 511, n. 1; Phoney, London Times Literary Supplement, Jan. 6 and 20, 1940, pp. 7 and 31, and Origin of Phoney, London Observer, April 7, 1940.
1 Jewelry Auction Jargon, June, pp. 375–76.
2 The late Dr. William Rosenau of Baltimore, a distinguished Hebrew scholar, told me that mahula should be spelled mechuleh. It is derived from the Hebrew verb kala, signifying to finish and is commonly used for to go bankrupt.
3 Probably a corruption of the German mensch.
4 According to Dr. Rosenau misch-cowain (in which the second c should be k) is derived from the Hebrew verb schokaw, to lie down. The noun formed from it is mischkov, a bed. “Consequently,” said Dr. Rosenau, “mischkowain in its dual plural form with the -aim ending has reference to two persons lying down together and indulging in cohabitation.”
5 The correct form is metziah. It signifies a find or bargain, and is from the Hebrew verb motzoh, a find.
6 Dr. Louise Pound showed in Peter Funk, American Speech, Feb., 1929, pp. 183–86, that this curious term was in use in New York so early as 1834. It was also used by Walt Whitman in the New Orleans Crescent, March 13, 1848.
7 Also, to yentz. Witman says: “It also has another meaning, but because of postal regulations I shall omit it.” See Supplement I, p. 435.
1 See Supplement I, pp. 337–38.
2 In an article in the Billboard, Dec. 22, pp. 8 and 9. It was reprinted as The Vocabulary of the Show Business in his Principles of Playmaking; New York, 1919, pp. 251–64.
3 In compiling it I have made use of Trouper Talk, by Gretchen Lee, American Speech, Oct., 1925, pp. 36 and 37; Stage Terms, by Percy W. White, the same, May, 1926, pp. 436–37; Theatrical Lingo, by Ottille Amend, the same, Oct., 1927, pp. 21–23; Jewels From a Box-Office: The Language of Show Business, by Arnold Moss, the same, Oct., 1936, pp. 219–22; Speech of the Theatre, by W. P. Daggett, Quarterly Journal of Speech Education, April, 1923, pp. 154–62; Show Talk and Stage Slang, by Joseph Arnold, Bookman, June, 1929, pp. 33–64; A Glossary of Stage Terms and Parlance, in A Handbook For the Amateur Actor, by Van H. Cartmell; New York, 1936, pp. 85–98; A Stageland Dictionary, by Walter J. Kingsley and Loney Haskell, New York Times, Oct. 14, 1923, section 8, p. 4; Broadway Glossary, in So You Want To Go Into the Theatre?, by Shepard Traube; Boston, 1936, pp. 243–47; and Theatrical Workers’ Slang and Jargon, in Lexicon of Trade Jargon, Vol. III, compiled by the Federal Writers’ Project in New York. The argot of the English stage is in A Dictionary of Stage Terms, in Theatre and Stage, edited by Harold Downs; London, 1934, pp. 91–104; English Theatrical Terms and Their American Equivalents, by Henry J. Heck, American Speech, Aug., 1930, p. 468, and English Show Slang, Billboard, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 193. It is also discussed in Notes and Queries, Oct. 24 and Nov. 21, 1942. A bibliography of books and articles on both American and English theatrical argot is in Burke’s Literature of Slang, pp. 119 and 120.
4 Free-list is marked an Americanism by the DAE and traced to 1845, but Sir St. Vincent Troubridge, in Notes on DAE, American Speech, Dec., 1946, p. 276, gives an English example dated 1806.
5 In England to go backstage is to go round. In American Speech, Oct., 1942, p. 203, Dwight L. Bolinger shows that back-stage has come into general use in the sense of under-cover, not claiming attention.
1 The expedient of hiring professional acclaimers has never been in general use on the American stage. Its home is Paris, where the claque has been an institution for years. It has produced many terms of its own, e.g., rieur, or rigolard, one who laughs, pleureur, a weeper; bisseur, one who cries bis! (i.e., encore); chevaliers du lustre (knights of the chandelier); chatouilleur (tickler), a claqueur who devotes himself to one performer. For the Vienna opera claque see My Life in the Claque, by Joseph Wechsberg, New Yorker, Feb. 19, 1944, pp. 22–25.
2 Called floats in England.
3 From the name of Charles Frohman (1860–1915), the most celebrated New York manager of the 1900 era. Now obsolescent.
4 In America it is out front; in England, in front.
5 See Who is George Spelvin?, by Gilbert Swan, American Mercury, Nov., 1943. Mr. Swan says that Spelvin was invented by Edward Abeles. During one period of three years he appeared in 20,000 performances of 210 different parts.
6 In England it is the stage-cloth.
7 Possibly from Hamlet, a part that all the old-time bad actors either aspired to play or claimed to have played. But the Lexicon of Trade Argot prefers to derive it from the fact that actors formerly used hamfat instead of cold cream to remove their make-up, and this is supported by a variant form, hamfatter. The term is not listed by Partridge, but it is known in England, and the well-known critic and dramatist, St. John Ervine, used it in the title of an article, Ham Acting, in the London Observer, Feb. 9, 1936. On July 26, 1938, Stephen Williams, dramatic critic of the London Evening Standard, printed in his paper an article (Shakespeare as She is Spoke, p. 7) in which he said: “We hear a great deal about ham acting nowadays. As far as I can judge, ham acting is the habit of rolling sonorous speeches round the tongue and delivering them with extravagant relish to the gallery. Well, why not? Recent performances of Shakespeare have convinced me that the decay of ham acting is a deplorable thing.” Ervine, in the article mentioned, quoted Harcourt Williams as saying, in Four Years of the Old Vic; London, 1936: “I suppose it is an abbreviation of what used to be called hambone.” In the Stage (London), June 1, 1944, Edgar T. Hayes said that hambone meant an amateur. Ham is also used to designate an amateur radio operator. In this sense it originated in the United States, but Partridge says that it was adopted in England, c. 1936. It is used likewise in the United States to signify any inept and amateurish workman or other person.
1 Now obso
lete. So called because the prompter, now extinct save in stock companies, was stationed there.
2 In England any place outside London is the provinces, and on the road is on tour.
1 The article is usually dropped. Thyra Samter Winslow’s Show Business (a book) was published in 1926. Some analogues have appeared, e.g., shipping business without the article: Congressional Record, Dec. 6, 1945, p. 11724, col. 2.
2 See The Straw Hat Theatre, by Joseph Corré, American Notes & Queries, July and Aug., 1945, pp. 51–54 and 67–69.
3 “It consists of nothing but a railroad water-tank.” In recent years filling-station is substituted.
4 From the name of the critic of the New York Tribune (1836–1917). Now obsolete. In compiling this list I have had the experienced aid of my old colleague, George Jean Nathan. Some of the terms come from England. The NED traces house to 1662–63, business to 1671, drop to 1779, heavy to 1826 and ghost to 1853, but it marks grip U.S. and traces it to 1886.
5 Many of its terms are listed in Stage Terms, by Percy W. White, American Speech, May, 1926, pp. 436–37, and in Vol. III (Theatrical Workers’ Slang and Jargon) of the Federal Writers’ Project Lexicon of Trade Jargon. The word vaudeville was borrowed from the French. The DAE shows that it began to come into use in the United States in the Civil War era. The English prefer variety, though it is possible that the latter may be an Americanism. The NED’s first example of its use is dated 1886, but the DAE traces it in the United States to 1882, and in the form of varieties to 1849.
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