History And Old Stuff...
I have a new old book. It is an 8th-grade reading textbook from 1931, The Roundup, published by The John C. Winston Co. of Chicago. The following passage is excerpted from an article by Maria Leach, titled "Slang and Slang". Here, Maria tells us what she really thinks.
Is your mind, too, such a single-track mind that everything you see is either "cute or "darling"? Do you say a poem is great, your breakfast was great, or your teacher is great? Do you say the weather is fierce, your lessons are fierce, and your teacher is fierce?
If you talk like this, everybody will know that your mind is a shabby thing. If you have only one or two words to describe the world and all the vastly different things and people in it, your speech will betray not only poverty of vocabulary, but poverty of mind...
Words like fine and fierce, in fact all blanket words which are used to cover a multitute of things, belong to one of the most objectionable types of slang. Such silly remarks as jazz baby, sweet papa, and you know me, Al, are labels of a shallow and second-hand wit. And a too free use of slang prevents the mind from acquiring a command over legitimate English.
The "slang habit" is a vicious thing. Not only does it keep a shallow mind shallow, but almost all slang grows cheap by constant use and eventually belittles the things it aims to enhance.
-Maria Leach
Well, then. Let us avoid silly, repetitive slang so Maria Leach can rest peacefully in her grave. Really, I'm surprised she didn't say that such slang would rot your teeth and stunt your growth!
To give the lady credit, she did write in the first part of the article about picturesque, vigorous slang, which she liked because it enriches the language. Some of her examples of acceptable slang are listed below. I've added definitions for a few that may be unfamiliar.
| to cross swords to parry a thrust to wrestle with a problem to be in high feather (in good spirits) to show the white feather (betray your low breeding by being cowardly or slothful) to have a yellow streak bleachers sweater skyscraper speak-easy moonshiner hustle | stunt to give one's self away by hook or crook to show one's hand to be aboveboard car-whacker (mechanic) flivver (old car) tin Lizzie step on it close-up fade-out flash-back wirepulling hard-boiled (emotionally callous) |
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2 comments:
That's a great extract. Kind of proves why such nay-saying is so useless: slang takes care of itself. It either succeeds, or doesn't, all on its own. "Jazz baby"? Gone. "Skyscraper"? "Close-up"? "Sweater"? Here to stay.
Well said, Grant.
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