SLANG

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 18, 22 January 1927, Page 14

SLANG

Like most other things, slang moves in cycles. Certain words have their brief day, and then become part of the lumber of forgotten things. It is a curious reflection that slang may date a person as surely as clothes, or a style of hair dressing; if you heard a man say "Damme" you would inevitably conclude.that he was a bucolic old colonel of sixty, a relic of the novels of Charles Dickens. If you heard a woman say "damme" you would without question, know her to be extremely modern. There is little justification for slang, and yet it has become the hall mark for smartness among our young people.. I am reminded of the delicious story of ,the irascible old English squire who took a charming young girl in to dinner. Be surmised that she was English, and took the, occasion to say what he thought of, the appalling slang used by so many | young American girls. She looked at him calmly. ."You've sure dribbled a bibfull," she said. Expressions., such as these thrive best in. their native American soil; English slang goes along different paths. To a certain extent slang is justified, and in certain circumstances it seems an almost necessary form of expression. Nobody would question the delicioci alang coined by P. G. Wodehouse, that past master of. humour; but?, again, nobody would question that it' is suitable only for such characters as he draws, and in such books as he.writes.. It would sound strange on "the lips of people in real life. Many of his phrases;: have, however, been, adopted, which brings us back to this contention that slang moves in cycles. "Blow along 3' and "old bean" and "old sport" are familiar words with most young people. "Pater' 1 and "mater" seem to be losing favour, and in their place "old thing" is substituted. "Old pot" ran "old thing" a, close second, but has gracefully begun to give way. "Old pot" suggests, somehow, the season before last, and as such cannot be tolerated a moment. Of curious' adjectives; young people have an abundance. The'lidea 1 seems to beito apply an adjective where it has-least application. "Awfully "and "jolly," both old-stag-era, are applied with a complete^ and total lack, of discrimination, and to be told that your ■ hat is awfully nice is high honour indeed. "Foul" and "filthy" are at present enjoying great popularity. The day is foul, that dress is foul, the food is foul, men are foul, and "how foul!«" is tho most heartfelt expression the mueh-talked-of modern young ,women : can call to mind. No doubt thesewords will go through their cycle, and in a few seasons to be told that you look perfectly foul will doubtless mean that you look utterly charming. Words change in'meaning in the strangest fashion; the way they change in form is probably stranger. Just take one instance. Years ago an inn was

built in England, and was called, in the long terminology of the day, "God Encompasses Us." To-day it ia known everywhere as ■' The Goat and Compass! '' ■••

It is curious the games we play with words, and one of our greatest diversions is undoubtedly to give harmless words a meaning they were never intended to have, and to coin slang. However fascinating and expressive slang may be, it is a mutilation of the. English language, and slang in abundanco is one of tho most horrible things I know.