The Use of Slang.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 31, 11 February 1875, Page 7

The Use of Slang.

It is no easy taskj observes the 'Daily News,', fo' trace the -ancestry of what are: known as slahg^; phrases The turf arid the betting-ring have largely 'contributed to biir ' stock o unregistered or -unckssical * -JErigljlj^ and so apt and pointed are many of tJiPr expressions common to. bookmakers* that they have obtained a surprising acceptance and currency. /A , few of them indeed have almost a prescriptive right now to be incorporated with J tli.e ? legitimate body of bur language j -The Universities have also : been fertile sources of supply in this. way. - For the , last two years or so*we have heard* the' phrases " good form ? or., '5 bad form " employed with ,slang significance, and the words have crept into' circles— fn'to drawirig-rooms everi- — with consider-* able, success, . sufficient at least , to. warrant the novelists of theuphbl§tdring school . in putting the expressions! into the mouths of speaking-dolls. The word 'ffo^m," however, .in^its present sense,' can: be 'excused • upon grounds both* of age and respectability.^ The Greville journals just .. published contain the following:— "Lord - JOnri. (Russell) rose, and, in .a speech far surpassing his .• usual- form, - . ■ ."'"A "7* This was written in 1836. It would be interesting •to obtain the ' exact derivation- of . the, word in %; significance as implying capacity or power. It is largely risedby sporting- authors and sporting prophets ; but few persons, " we imagine, -who- are familiar- with-it have any idea that as . far haclcjaj 1 836 ; it was in vogue, to convey the same variety of meanings for, which* it -may '. be made responsible in 1874. ' ' <*- '■ — ■ •* |^— mm •— — — — — — -