AMERICANISMS, in language, are words or phrases peculiar to the English speech of the United States or of British America. They may be: (1) Forms originating in America; or (2) forms that have emigrated from Britain and that have continued in use here while they are obsolete there; or (3) that have undergone here an essential change of signification. Ex amples of words originating here or at least first introduced here into the vocabulary of the English language are Buncombe, Caucus, Ger rymander; of words here in current use but now antiquated in England we have Fall (the season), Wilt (verb), Whittle; and of words with changed signification we have Corn (maize), Partridge (quail or ruffed grouse), Store (in England shop). These three proc esses of new word coinage, or survival of meanings in one province of the language which in another province have become obso lete, and of essential change of signification, are inherent in all languages, and can be traced in a comparison of two counties as clearly as in two countries. Americanism expresses the character of English speech in America: it does not imply any inferiority of American English to Bntish English; nor is American English subject to correction by the laws that British English prescribes for itself : American ism and Briticism in speech are mutually on an equal footing; unlike Gallicisms, Germanisms or even Scotticisms, Americanisms are not aliens in English, but natives. Among the Americanisms to be noted in what follows are many words or phrases which belong to the vocabulary and phraseology of slang, and are universally regarded as vulgarisms and sole cisms and vicious growths of the vernacular speech of America; as such they are aAme9 canisms,)) but they are no more part of legit:11 mate American speech than is costermongers English part of the English language of the home country.
In the front rank of Americanisms must be classed those which are most racy of the soil and that could not have been evolved in any social or physical environment other than was and is presented in this new world. The first settlers had to clear the boundless forest which covered the land, and constantly to guard their lives and their possessions against the forays of the savages: they went always armed to their day's work. Such words and phrases as Going on the war path, Digging up the hatchet, Bury ing the hatchet, Scalping, Tomahawlcing, recall the hero-tales of American pioneering; and from the same period come Shanty, Blazing out, Clearing, Backwoods (in Canada, °the Bush°). They °took to the woods° or °to the timber° for refuge at the approach of the redskins in overwhelming force. In the sparsely peopled settlements the necessity for neighborly help in gathering in the harvest or in erecting a log cabin or in providing comforts for the winter led to the custom of the Raising-bee or Build ing-bee, the Quilting-bee, the Husking-bee: the origin of the word Bee in this sense is un known; the custom itself survives in rural dis tricts, and a few years ago a new sort of Bee— the Spelling-bee had great vogue; and that was followed by the Definition-bee; these °bees° met with much popular favor in England. Log rolling is another example of co-operation among backwoodsmen, when neighbors associ ate to collect each other's logs for the winter fires. Logrolling came early into use as a term
of the art of practical politics to signify the co operation of members of a legislative body to promote one another's schemes. Literary Log rolling is when authors combine to create a market for each other's productions by mutual puffery. Salt springs to which the big game used to resort were Salt Licks; the spaces be tween stretches of water over which the pio neers had to carry their canoes were Portages. As settlers began to seek homes in the West on government lands, the distribution of the public domain became a business of vast proportions and °a Land-Office business° became a superla tive term of comparison. A Section of land is a square mile or 640 acres; a very usual subdivi sion is the Quarter section, 160 acres. In the nearer West, as in the East, bodies of land were Farms; in the farther West, Ranches; in the South, Plantations. The verb to Deed is a pure Americanism: the phrase °To convey by deed° was too slow. A settler who acquired land from the government °blazed out' his grant by cut ting with his axe marks on the bark of trees: the word is from the French blazon, a term of heraldry. A Lot of ground is any distinct portion of land, and in towns and cities is a piece of ground with a definite frontage, usually 25 feet. The use of the word °lot° in the sense of a parcel of land seems to have originated with the Puritans in Massachusetts: for this they had scriptural authority, Joshua xv. To go Across lots is to take the shortest route; but to make a Bee line toward a place is to haste to it in a straight line. Immigrant is an Americanism, and it is the accurately fit word to signify one who comes to a country as a settler. Tenderfoot, a most expressive Amer ican slang word to designate the newcomer into a newly opened gold or silver mining district, is current coin no less in Australia than in the Rocky Mountains. In California, in the early days, many words came into use and have since remained in general circulation, for example, Placer, Prospecting, Diggings, Pay Dirt, Gulch. Bonanza is of later introduction. Crevasse is a breach in the embankment of a river; the word is of French origin in the province of Louisiana and specially denotes the effect of a flood of the Mississippi River. Of like origin is the word used to designate the embankment of the Mississippi, Levee. The word is also used to designate a river front of towns situate on other rivers in the Mississippi Valley which are naturally confined within their own banks. In English usage Levee is accented on the first syllable, but in the United States the accent falls usually on the last. Incidentally it may be remarked of another American usage of the word Levee to signify an evening reception of visitors by the President of the United States, °the President's Levee,° that it is a rank sole cism, and means in effect a morning reception in the evening. Freshet, in obsolete English usage; means a stream of fresh water: in the sense of an inundation it is an Americanism. Blizzard, signifying a violent, blinding storm of wind, snow and sleet, is a word of unascer tained origin.• Prairie is as distinctly American as Veldt is South African or as Tundra is Rus sian and Siberian.