Glimpse of Yesteryear
Slang, it seems, has just about always been with us. Some slang expressions somehow catch on and become part of regular discourse.…
Slang, it seems, has just about always been with us. Some slang expressions somehow catch on and become part of regular discourse. For example, someone in the 1800s would understand perfectly that when you said, Don’t shoot your mouth off! you meant, Dont talk when you should have not said anything! A person here in 2013 would have the same understanding.
Other such lasting slang sayings of the 1800s are, get your back up (get angry), the whole kit and caboodle (everything), and throw in the sponge (give up).
On the other hand, if you went back in time to the 1800s and annoyed someone, s/he might tell you, You woke up the wrong passenger! You might also be told you were between hay and grass (acting half-grown, adolescent). If you continued to be annoying, you might be told to light a shuck (go away). And if you missed the point of what was said, you would be told you were all down but nine.
Among the1800s slang words we still use are scuttlebutt (rumors), stumped (confused) and fetch (bring). Words that did not make it into 21st century common use, or that when used are considered archaic include Arbuckles (coffee), croaker (pessimist), offish (aloof) and consumption (tuberculosis).
Really, its surprising how many common words started out as slang even before the 1800s. Just think, when you say, The policeman walked his beat, you are using a 1720s slang word for a policemans patrol area and when you refer to someone as a bigwig, you are using another 1700s slang term, this one meaning an important person.
How about the 1600s? From that time we have, among other words, bilk (swindle or cheat), blasted (accursed), buzz (gossip), cat (spiteful woman), chops (jaws), and blab (inform or tattle).
Considering how long blab has been around, its a bit odd that the word blabbermouth was first coined in the 1930s some 300 years later.
The 1500s gave us words including dirty (morally bad), eye (to look at intensely), brand (very as in brand new), blue (sad), and blockhead (stupid or foolish). Just think, back when the cartoon Peanuts was in its prime, Lucy called Charlie Brown a 400-year-old insulting name.
And we have slang words even older than that in common use today words such as booty from the 1479s (stolen goods or money) and break up (a 1480s slang phrase meaning ending a relationship). Today, we might say that some blockheads (1550s) broke up (1480s), probably because they had become cold (1170) toward each other.
Yep, a 500-year-old word describing people who perform an action identified by a nearly 600-year-old word because of an emotion named by a nearly 900-year-old word.
Aint* English grand.
(* A correct common word in the 1700s that became slang by the 1900s.)
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