Names Became Language

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 17 (Supplement)

Names Became Language

By Norman Lewis

IN 1861 a well-known inventor of farm machinery planned and devised a weapon that he thought would help the Federal forces in the American Civil War. The result of his efforts was a gun that could fire 350 shots a minute—the forerunner of the modern machine-guns.

The war was practically over before the authorities put this new weapon into general use (calling it the Gatling gun, after the inventor, Richard Jordan Gatling), hut once it came out it was quickly copied by almost every nation in the world. Now, many, many years later, since detective stories and gangster movies have come on to the scene, revolvers or automatic pistols, which are far different from the original Gatling gun, are nevertheless called in the argot of detective-story writers, a gat. That Martinet In the middle of his reign Louis XIV. of France appointed a new inspectorgeneral of infantry who immediately achieved for himself a reputation for stern discipline second to none in the French army. For he drilled and drilled and trained and trained his soldiers until they were well-nigh perfect. He was the first of that long and illustrious line of officers who helped or<ranise France's regular army. Ironically enough, Inspector-General Jean Martine

U U was killed by his own artillery while leading an infantry assault; but his name still lives, and anyone who demands from his subordinates an excessive degree of discipline is disparagingly called a martinet. In 1922 the hair<lr essers of France decreed a week of celebration in honour of a 70-year-old retired barber. Years before, when this barber was barelv earning a living from his trade, a girl customer who had be-en captivated his mother's naturally wavy hair asked if he could gjie her a similar hair-do instead of the button-curls that were 60 popular in IS7o. The young barber hit upon the idea of reversing his curling ir<sn. This mere twist of the wrist made him famous; ■soon women of beauty and wealth were fighting for the time and attention of Marcel the hairdresser, inventor of the justly celebrated Marcel wave. And in 10 years Marcel amassed a fortune that permitted him to close his shop, tour the world, and then retire to live a life of ease and luxury. Hoodlums The leader of a gang of young hooligans who used to terrorise "the Barbary Coast in San Francisco was a certain notorious Muldoon. A newspaperman who wished to coin a term for the youth- : ful criminals (they ranged in ajre from 12 to 30) wrote a piece in which he i spelled Muldoon exactly backwards— Xoodlum—and called the members of ■ the gang noodluins. A compositor set- ■ ting the article in type mistook the X ' for an H, thus putting in print for the it first time the word hoodlums.