THAT AMERICAN LANGUAGE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 4 January 1924, Page 6

THAT AMERICAN LANGUAGE.

SOME OF ITS SHORTCUTS,

A wit once said that the British and the Americans had everything in common except their language. "You are a flat tyre! " said a pretty American girl to a jaded dance partner in a clear tone which carried far enough for other couples to turn round to see what she meant. The phrase was apt. He was bored and languid. A yea» ago she would have told him he had not "pep " or possible that he was a "poor boob'" a "dumb bell," a "bonehead," or a "stupe." But a flat tyre is the latest and smartest American term of reproach, and-who says there are not fashions in slang? In the United States of America they change every few months. If one wants to get rid of such a partner good-naturedly, or indeed of any person there seems to be magic in the cryptic curtness of "Skidoo " "Park yourself," and "On your way." We may not get the magic, but the American who is being thus dismissed does. "Oh, baby!" murmured an American college boy in a flaming tie, when he was treating a girl to a view of ihe Tower of London recently. "AiUv boyi" she giggled, and in gleeful chorus they exclaimed: "Oh, cut it out." Quite cryptic to those about them, . this conversation, but really meaning a fondness for each other with a determination not to be silly. "Make it snappy," advised an American father when his pretty daughter decided she must change hear frock before driving in the park with him. He did not niean the frock. He meant that she should make haste. "Can it!" your American, acquaintance may exclaim, if you start him giving a detailed explanation; "Be yourself^" if you are annoyed; "Laugh that off," if he doubts what you are telling him; while, "Yes, we have no bananas, "apparently means incredulity, but covers other feelings also. Terms of affection and admiration among young Americans include "Cute," "Skeezies," "Hon," or "Kiddo"; terms of good-natured reproach are even more cryptic with "Gazabo," "Mut," and ' "Bimbo." You may be told, as a threat, that you will get the "fur-lined bathtub" or" the "cut-lass hammer." A year ago you would have learned with surprise that you got somebody's "goat," which had nothing to do with the '. peaceful muncher of tins, and merely meant that you were irritating. All this, by the way of playfulness, you understand. The more kindly the American feels towards you, the more freely he will speak his own tongue. The only way really to surprise and hurt him is to suggest that he uses ( slang!