In the vocabulary of politics, besides Log rolling, already mentioned, we have Gerryman der, to make an unfair distinction of electoral districts for party ends: this American political trick is called by the English politicalphilos opher Jerrymandering; and one of the English dictionaries gives as an alternative spelling Jer rymander, while in Gerrymander it makes the g soft: thus pronounced, the word Gerrymander is a Briticism. What for the British is a politi cal canvass is for us a Campaign, and a Cam paign is conducted to a considerable extent in accordance with the tactics and strategy of real war. The successful party is the Victor, and to him, under the ancient laws of war, belongs the spoil. Speaking from the Stump, Taking the stump, were originally literal expressions of fact. Buncome, or Bunkum, seems to be au thentically derived from the name of a county of North Carolina, whose representative in Congress, when begged not to weary the House with his oratory, replied that though he was addressing the House he intended his speech for the good people of Buncombe. The deriva tion of the word Caucus from Calkers is plaus ible. In 1770 the calkers and ropemakers of Boston held frequent meetings to denounce the British government and its local agents, and those meetings were called by the Tories Calk ers' meetings. The Caucus, a preliminary meeting held for the purpose of selecting a candidate for office, or, in case of a legislative body, to decide upon the policy to be supported by members of a party in the open sessions, is an American invention; of late it has been in troduced in England. Spread-Eagle oratory has its name from the extravagant style of stump orators and Independence Day spouters when they glorify the Bird of Freedom. High falutin, a word that cannot be traced to its original source, denotes turgid, bombastic ora tory. To Enthuse is unquestionably an Ameri canism, and it is base coin formed from the word enthusiasm, which, whether in Greek or English, has no corresponding active trait sitive verb form. Of party names and nicknames may be mentioned Whig and Tory, of the pre-Revolutionary era, Federal and Republican of the period after independ ence, then Whig again, and instead of Re publican either Democratic Republican or simply Democrat, with the nickname (about 1835) Locofoco (given first to a body of radi cals who, in Tammany Hall, New York, after a meeting was officially dissolved and the lights put out, produced locofoco matches, rekindled the lights and continued the meeting: the loco foco match, or locofoco cigar was introduced in 1834, the word meaning "substitute for fire° —in loco foci. It was a cigar with friction match attached). Other party names and nick names are Republican, Silver-grays, Copper head, Carpet-baggers, Lily Whites. The man in any political organization who possesses or is believed to possess authority to dictate the party's policies is the Boss. The word is the Dutch bans and is the usual designation of an employer or overseer of workmen. A few years ago political terrorism in the South, de signed to bar to negroes access to the polls, was known as Bulldozing, a word which cannot be traced to its origin with certainty, and which is no longer in use. Roorback is a false and in jurious report set afloat in the crisis of a politi cal campaign, usually a very short time be fore the canvass is closed, so that it may have damaging effect before contradiction or refutation can be made. The phrase ((a good enough Morgan till after election') recalls an incident in the history of New York politics. William Morgan, author of a book purporting to reveal secrets of Freemasonry, was kid napped, and the anti-Masonry party charged the Freemasons with having murdered him. To counteract this charge, which was credited largely by public opinion, the Masonic society, or rather its friends in the Whig and Demo cratic parties, spread reports of the finding of the missing man; whether true or false, these reports furnished "a good enough Morgan till after election!) Right, as equivalent to very, is by some writers classed among Americanisms; but that is an error, though undoubtedly the word is more commonly used in that way here than among the English. In the style Right Rev erend, Right Worshipful, etc., Right has the meaning of very; in Tyndale's Bible occur such phrases as Right sorry, Right humble, and in writers of the 14th century the same usage is to be seen. But Right here, Right now, Right away, Right off are Americanisms and are not found in the colloquial speech of Britain. In British English of these latter days Sickness is hardly used save in the sense of nausea ; but the best British authors do not countenance that restriction of meaning. In the United States, outside the circles in which the time o' day is given from London, the words Sick and Sick ness have the same signification they have had in the general language at least from the 14th century, when mind-sick, mind-sickness, were current phrases ; and in the King James version of the Bible sick and sickness have the same purport which they have in the American ver nacular. Ugly, in the sense of cross-grained, ill-natured, is an Americanism, though English usage has the nearly parallel phrase, an ugly customer. An American can ride in a coach;
but an Englishman, if he is to ride at all, must go on horseback or be borne on the back of some other animal. British restriction of the meaning of Ride is inconsistent with the usage of the translators of the Bible, who make Joseph, for example, and Jehonadab ride in chariots. The garment which Americans style Vest is better styled by the English Waistcoat. Peart, pronounced, and often written, Peert, meaning lively, brisk, sprightly, without any suggestion of sauciness or afreshness,D is gone out of use, at least of literary use, in England; it is an Americanism, but its habitat, so to speak, is restricted. A special use of Peart is to signify the improved tone of one who is recovering from a sickness.
The place of business at retail which in England is a Shop is in the United States a Store. Of late a tendency has appeared toward adoption of the British usage of these terms. In regions unaffected by this tendency Shop is still what it was 50 years ago in this country, a work-place, and a Store is a place where goods are kept in store for sale. But even while Shop and Store retained their cisatlantic mean ings, there were numerous phrases current which are inconsistent with the American mean ings of Store and Shop, for example, Shop worn, Smelling of the shop, Shop-boy, Shop ping, Shopkeeper, Shoplifter, etc. The grocer's store or shop is here called a Grocery, not so in England; there Grocery signifies only the wares sold by a grocer. Unquestionably Amer ican is the use of the word Drummer in the sense of one who solicits or touts for custom. The phrase, He struck oil, will probably sur vive after all the oil wells have gone hopelessly dry.
What we call Baggage is by the British called luggage, though the reason of the differ ence can hardly be that we travel with less im pedimenta than they. The development of our railway systems has brought many new words into the vernacular, but none more expressive than the verb Telescope.
The conversational speech of Americans at one time seemed to be seriously threatened with invasion by a host of spurious, illegitimate word-coinages, especially of verbs made out of nouns, as to Advantage, to Ambition, and of pompous verbs made out of nouns ending mostly in -ation, as Orate, Donate; but that danger was happily averted. The use of Transpire in the sense of happen, occur, is of American origin, but the use quickly spread to England; the solecism was promptly branded by scholars, but it still lives and flourishes. Balance, in the sense of remainder, is another Americanism which has attained a currency which it does not deserve. Mad, in the sense of angry, is an Americanism of the baser sort. To Wilt, on the other hand, a "provincialism') in England, but in America a word in universal use, is one of the valuable contributions of the American province of the English language to the mother tongue's general store. The proverbial Whittling of the Yankee keeps alive an ancient native English word for knife.
Among notable or curious phrases current in the United States may be mentioned Flying off the handle,— losing self-control through pas sion: one is then like the axe-head which has quit the haft. To Get religion, or even to Take religion, is a phrase constructed on the pattern of eto take a cold' or take the measles.' To be Posted plainly had its origin in the counting-room.
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