SLANG IN COURT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21561, 4 August 1933, Page 6

SLANG IN COURT

QUERIES BY A JUDGE ' ' ' '• ORIGIN OF PHRASES ; :>> - Judge Perdriau, of the New slouth || Wales Workers' Compensation Com- V" mission, usually turns a deaf ear 1» r tne a literary lapses of those in the boa:, but : his love of words sometimes makes . him openly curious as to. their true origin. .j In the course of an address by counsel in Sydney lately, the Judge queried g the phrase "country bumpkin." "I wonder," said the Judge, "what *?-V derivation of the word bumpkin is. Counsel produced a dictionary, which ■■■ gave the meaning as "a countrj&lout, derived from a nautical term, which indicated a block of wood. i. "Polling" and "swinging the lead, next aroused the curiosity <of the Judge, but none in the Court could supply derivations, though, of coarse, the •: meaning of the phrases was obvious. In reviewing the evidence, counsel g said that one witness had a "rack" in - his back, adding, "but I do not knoflr the derivation of that." "Wall, I think I do," said the Judge. "It pKibably ,- has something to do with the rack used ,;; by the inquisitors in dealing with heretics in the Spanish Inquisition; but! I suppose, after all, the witness meant merely a rick." ' •