According to 1950s slang, what would the below statement mean? "Logan was bad news in class today."

Bathers at the beach, 1897. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

Bathers at the embankment, 1897.

Library of Congress

Phrases phase in and out of everyday usage. Specially in the global hodgepodge that is American English. Sometimes, withal, in that location are phrases forgotten that perchance should be sayings salvaged.

Breezy words and expressions that popped upward in popular parlance, specially in the 19th century, says Lynne Murphy — an American linguist who teaches at the University of Sussex in England — are "going to stay adequately local, and and so there can be a lot of variation not merely between countries, but between cities, between social classes, et cetera."

Murphy, who also oversees the language-watching blog Separated by a Mutual Linguistic communication, says: "English has a rich multifariousness of means for making new words — and then a lot of slang is just giving new meaning to old words."

Here are an even dozen, pretty much forgotten slanglike words or sayings from the 19th century, rediscovered while delving in the archives — and with added guidance from James Maitman's 1891 American Slang Dictionary :

1) Too loftier for his nut — beyond someone's attain. "That clay-banking concern pig wants the aforementioned pay every bit a Senator; he'southward getting too high for his nut," co-ordinate to a grammar-corrected version of the Oakland, Calif., Tribune on Jan. 12, 1885.

2) Bottom fact — an undisputed fact. "Yet all the calculations of the political economists, the great bottom fact is that 1 man's honest, steady work, rightly applied, especially if aided by mechanism and improved modes of conveyance and distribution, suffices to supply the actual needs of a dozen burdensome loafers," according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Jan. 31, 1871.

3) To be Chicagoed — to be beaten soundly, as in a baseball game shutout. "Political corruption ... if the clergy only keep to that topic, Lincoln will be Chicagoed!" from the Plymouth, Ind., Weekly Democrat of June 7, 1860.

4) See the elephant — to see all the sights of a town, especially the edgier aspects. "A immature Sioux Indian from Haskell Institute ... said he was going to Chicago to hunt buffalo. He was told there was no game of that kind there, but that if he wanted to meet the elephant he was on the correct track," the Lawrence, Kan., Daily Journal reported on Sept. ii, 1891. Also sometimes used by members of the war machine to describe going to war.

5) How came yous so — inebriated. Describing an illustration, a reporter in the Gettysburg, Pa., People's Press of May 22, 1835, wrote: "A gentleman a little 'how came yous and then' with his hat on the dorsum of his head, is staggering virtually in the presence of Miss Fanny, who appears to be quite shocked."

6) Lally-libation -- a real success. "That north testify window of Shute & Haskell'southward is a 'lally-cooler,' " the Jan. 4, 1890, Salina, Kan., Republican noted.

7) Shinning around -- moving about speedily. "It is shinning effectually corners to avoid meeting creditors that is sapping the energies of this generation," opined the Dallas, Texas, Daily Herald on Oct. 31, 1877.

8) Shoddyocracy — people who get rich selling shoddy merchandise or services. "A lady of the shoddyocracy of Des Moines found, on returning from a walk, some phone call cards on her table," observed the Harrisburg, Pa., Telegraph of June 30, 1870.

ix) Some pumpkins -- a big deal. "If there was whatsoever kind of trading," noted the Grant Canton Herald in Wisconsin on July 17, 1847, "in which Simon B. ... flattered himself he was decidedly 'some pumpkins,' information technology was a equus caballus-trade."

10) Like Thompson's filly -- doing something unnecessarily, similar jumping a contend when the runway have been removed. "Thompson's filly," a reporter in the Saint Paul, Minn., World of November. xx, 1882, wrote, "was such an infernal idiot, that he swam across the river to get a drink."

11) Tell a thumper -- construct a clever lie. "When anyone told a thumper more palpably outrageous than usual, it was sufficiently understood ..." Reminiscences of the Turf past William Mean solar day, 1891.

12) W ake snakes — get into mischief. "And so I went on a regular wake snakes sort of a spree, and I went hither and there turnin', twistin' and doublin' near until I didn't know where or who I was," a man testified in courtroom as to why he was intoxicated, according to the New Orleans, La., Times Picayune of Aug. 15, 1842.

We asked Lynne Tater to comment on a few items in the listing above. Lally-cooler, she says, is "a sort of nonsensical compound ... though mayhap it's less nonsensical than it seems." See the elephant is "an expression based in a fable" — the Bullheaded Men and the Elephant. And to be Chicagoed is "a verbing of a place name. In the last case, I'm not findng whatsoever verbed place names in Britain, just in the same era, there was definitely verbing of personal names here, for case boycott."

She adds: "I'm sure nosotros could discover nonsensical-looking words — it was Lewis Carroll's time afterward all — and verb phrases of the verb-the-beast type, simply I'thousand not sure most ones with fable origins."

In that pursuit, researchers may be buffaloed.

Follow me @NPRHistoryDept; atomic number 82 me by writing lweeks@npr.org

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Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/21/423297371/12-lost-american-slangisms-from-the-1800s

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