A habitual user of slang will likewise borrow words like "pan out" from the technical lan guage of gold digging or other pursuits of a similar character; he will use the word "four flusher" from the language of the professional poker-player, and he will use the slang ex pressions "deal," "walk-over" and "up the flume" in giving an account of business. In his vocabulary of praise and blame one will find expressions such as "ripping," "swagger," "stunning," "the cheese," "rot," "poppy-cock"; and when he is in some difficulty he will be "in a hole," "in a box," "on his beam ends" or "in the soup." To extricate himself he will use his head or "nut," "think-box," "brain-pan" or "tipper stdry"; and will need money or, as he calls it, "dough," "mazuma," "shekels" or "rhino.' To go in public he will don his "glad rags" and appear as a "swell," "giddy-boy" or "dude." In this respect he will resemble the older "beaux,' "bucks," "exquisites,' "gallants,' "sparks" and "blades" While in the stock exchange one will hear him speak of "bulls," "bears,' "lambs," "longs" and "shorts," and from the side of the prize-ring one will find him awaiting to see a "knock-out" and always willing to dis approve of a blow "below the belt"; and he will be disappointed should one of the pugilists "throw up the sponge." One recent contribu tion to the vocabulary of slang is the word "jazz," which originated in the southern States, and means, according to a user's own defini tion, "to mix things up and spread 'em on thick"; in other words, a medley. Thus it ap pears that nearly every trade and every pro fession has a slang of its own in the shape of a body of words and expressions that serve as flippant and undignified substitutes for stand ard speech.
The contribution made by foreign languages to English slang, although it is not to be dis regarded, is not to be overrated as to its extent. There are a few words —Those) from the Dutch bass, dago from the Spanish Diego, spiel and bum from the German, which may be named as of foreign origin. The Romany, or tongue of the Gipsy, gave English the words "cove?) °jockey?) "mug)) and "pal?) which may be considered as slang expressions, and the English phrases, "not half bad)) and "a very decent fellow)) are, carefully considered, slang expressions and represent the rhetorical figure called meiosis. There are, it is true, words that
are no longer slang ("mob?) °humbug') and °tandem)) are examples) that were once so considered. America has contributed its quota to the slang of the English tongue; of such we might name the following expressions, recom mended mainly by their oddity: °scallywag," °vamoose) (from Sp. vdmos, "let us go))) ; and English has also these substitutes for standard usage to char acterize political life — umugwumps?) "gerry mander," ucarpet-bagger" ; as well as the older "Rump," °Bare-bones Parliament?) °Round head?) °Puritan," and so on. So politics also has its "slates?) "wire-pulling," "pipe-laying?) °log-rolling)" and °filibustering?) Expressions such as the foregoing, stigmatized at first as pure slang, are often in the end accepted as legitimate; just as have been the words °cob° and the term, °slang)) itself.
As the prevailing tendency of words in a language is toward degradation of meaning one of the most frequently recurring needs of Eng lish is that of words of dignified and serious intention to take the place of words which have become vulgar through ignoble use; and, there fore, it may be believed that while slang has made its contribution to the English language, still that contribution has been, on the whole, small.
Barrere, Albert, 'Argot .nd Slang' (rev. ed., London 1889) ; Barrere and Leland, 'Dictionary of Slang and Cant' (2 vols., ib. 1897) ; Delande's 'Glossaire erotique) (Brussels 1861) ; Farmer, J. S., and Henley, W. E., 'Slang and its Analogies' (7 vols., 1890 1904) ; Kluge, F. 'Rotwelsch' (1901) ; Gentiles, A., 'Deutches Slang) (1892) ; Hotten, J. C., 'Slang Dictionary' (London 1885) ; Maitland, James, 'American Slang Dictionary' (Chicago 1891) ; Lentzner, Karl, 'Colonial English: Glos sary of Australian Words' (London 1891) ; Farwell and Henley, 'Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English' (London 1905) ; Dawson, A. H., of English Slang and Collo quialisms) (New York 1913) ; Sullivan, J. M., `Criminal Slang' (Boston 1914) ; Sechrist, F. K., 'Psychology of Unconventional Language' (Worcester, Mass., 1913) ; Boston, 0. E., 'Slang and Cant in Jerome K. Jerome's Works: A Study' (Cambridge 1911); Ware, J. R., 'Pass ing English of the Victorian Era' (New York 1909).