AMERICA’S LANGUAGE

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6440, 19 January 1924, Page 2

AMERICA’S LANGUAGE

“YOU ARE A FLAT TYRE”

A wit once said that the British and the Americans had everything in common except their language. “You are a flat tire!” said a pretty American girl to a jaded dance pax-tner in a clear tone which carried far enough for other couples to turn round and see what she meant. The phrase was apt. He was bored and languid. A year ago she would have told him he had no “pep,” or possibly that he was a “poor boob,” a “bunib bell,” a “bone head,” or a “stupe.” But a flat tire 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 goodnaturedly. or indeed, of any person (says the Cape Argus) there seems to be magic in the cryptic curtness of “Skidoo,” “Pary yourself,” and “On your way.” We may not get the magic, but the American who is being dismissed does. “Oh, baby!” murmured the American boy in a flaming tie, when he was treating a girl to a view of the Tower of London recently., “Atta boy!” 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 her frock before driving in the park with him. He meant that she should make haste. “Can it!” your American acquaintance may exclaim, if you start 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 5 Americans include “Cutie,” “Skeezies,” “Hon,” or “Kiddo”; terms of good natured reproach are even more cryptic with “Gazabo,” “Mutt,” and “Mimbo.” You may be told, as a threat,, that you will get the “fur-lined bath tub” or the “cut-glass hammer.” A year ago you would have learned with surprise that you had somebody’s “goat” which had nothing to do with the peaceful muncher of tins, and merely meant that you were irritating. All this, by way of playfulness, you understand. The more kindly the American feels towards you the more frequently he will speak his own tongue. The only way really to surprise and hurt him is to suggest that he uses slang!