Schoolboy Slang.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13355, 3 August 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

Schoolboy Slang.

•.-riajtlie course of a conversation on the Subject iof the article on ' Schoolboy Slang, in the. 'Argus,' Professor Tucker said that the- schoolboy's vocabulary was a limited one, arid that he attempted to imprests things. 6n his mind by means of pictures drawn, 'from his games and incidents oi bis-daily life. They conyeyed ideas to his mind mora quickly than words, wlyci were ; toi him often abstract allusions, that kind off slang might be good and forcible, and in its essence it was the same -as a ■strong-metaphor. Another reason ior his use'of slang was the natural objection of the bov to seeming pedantic among hisfellows." Once the use of slang was started a boy liked to show how much he know of it," just as he took to cigarettes to show that he was a man of the world and nob because he liked them. He took his slang from various departments of life; his pnzerin<r slang showed his knowledge of lite in that respect, and the wider his compass of slang the greater appeared that experience of life which he liked to ,:how. When ons particular word has been invented, such as " footer," for football, then he proceeded by the instinct of analogy to use such words as "Soccer" and "Rugger , 'to denote the " Association and ItugDy games. There was undoubtedly a process of creating words en the lines of Lewis Carroll's "portmanteaus words," into which two meanings weie packed into one word. If a word like that arose in Eton or Harrow, schools which covered so wide a held, i'i became of universal use. The point about it was that it must get a stait, ana most of the widespread slang began in bio- c C liools, where a great number of small bovs would always copy what they heard tlw big boys sav. The Australian schoolboy has more slang than his English fellow, for'the Australian boy was much more in touch with all torts of things outside his school life. The English boy was kept more out of the way of such things, so that his range was more limited. The fact could not be evaded that there was some natural vulgarity in a boy. He was nearer to llit- barbarian than the grown' man. That showed itself in various ways, and, among other thing! l , it accounted for his taste for vulgar slang. A good deal that was now considered slang was no new invention, but was old English retained only in vulgar speech. Tn the old Bible you would find that "the Lord trounced Sx?ra." The thieves and tramps of England had retained moiv of these won!.-- Hum anyone cl.-e. How had they spread their peculiar slang among themselves? They had never met to discuss all (tie terms used to evade! the polka. 'Pn majority (if their words were old English expressions, "lore or less mutilated, and a good niauv were corrupted Yiddish, acquired, doubtless, from Jew-i-:h receivers. There was some disagreement as. to what really constituted slang. Such expressions, as " dusting his jacket." a. " hiding." or a " tanning■" would not be slang if they conveyed to the. speaker the picture thai was in them, but if used merely as a substitute for "thrashing" tbev "would hi elang. A boy did that sort of thing at school while he was aim-

ino- at being a man, but when he became a man ho would drop the greater .part of it. It was no more than a phase in his life. Professor Tucker said that he had noticed in Australia that many decently-educated young men had not. learned lo distinguish butwt en slang and good Englitsh. He had known young men, acting as school master.-; and occupying other positions requiring a tolerable education, lo u:-e phrase." in speaking to him without -ihe slightest knowledge on their part that they were using slang.