Dictionary of Americanisms - G-K



p. 153

G.
GA. The abbreviation for Georgia.

GAB. Loquacity; prate; idle talk. This is an old word, and still has a
place in the provincial glossaries of England.

GABBLEMENT. Gabble. A Southern word.

"This court's got as good ears as any man," said the magistrate, "but they
aint for to hear no old woman's gabblement, though it's under oath."--
Chron. of Pineville.

GADABOUT. One who walks about without business.--Webster.

GAFF. An artificial spur put upon game-cocks.

GAL-BOY. In New England, a romping girl; called also a tom-boy.

GALLOWSES. Suspenders; braces.

His skilts [pantaloons] were supported by no braces or gallowses, and
resting on his hips.--Margaret, p. 9.

GAMBREL. A hipped roof to a house, so called from its resemblance to the
hind leg of a horse, which by farriers is termed the gambrel.

Here and there was a house in the then new style, three cornered, with
gambled roof and dormer windows.--Margaret, p. 33.

GAME LEG. A lame leg. A term not peculiar to America.

GAMMON. Humbug; deceit; lies. Any assertion which is not strictly true,
or, professions believed to be insincere; as, 'I believe you're gammoning,
or, 'That's all gammon;' meaning, you are jesting with me, or, that's all
a farce.

The gentry say death and distress are all gammon,
And shut up their hearts to the lab'rer's appeal.--Punch, pl. 54.

GANDER-PULLING. A brutal species of amusement practised in Nova Scotia. We
quote Judge Halliburton's account of it from the Sayings and Doings of Sam
Slick:

"'But describe this gander-pulling.'
"'Well, I'll tell yon how it is,' sais I. 'First and foremost, a ring-road
is formed, like a small race-course; then two great long posts is fixed

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into the ground, one on each side of the road, and a rope made fast by the
eends to each post, leavin' the middle of the rope to hang loose in a a
curve. Well, then they take a gander and pick his breast as clean as a
baby's, and then grease it most beautiful all the way from the breast to
the head, till it becomes as slippery as a soaped eel. Then they tie both
his legs together with a strong piece of cord, of the size of a halyard,
and hang him by the feet to the middle of the swingin' rope, with his head
downward. All the youngsters, all round the country, come to see the
sport, mounted a horseback.

"'Well, the owner of the goose goes round with his hat, and gets so much a-
piece in it from every one that enters for the 'Pullin'," and when all
have entered, they bring their horses in a line, one arter another, and at
the words "Go a-head!" off they set, as hard as they can split; and as
they pass under the goose, make a grab at him, and whoever carries off the
head wins.

"'Well, the goose dodges his head and flaps his wings, and swings about
so, it aint no easy matter to clutch his neck; and when you do, it's so
greassy, it slips right through the fingers like nothin'. Sometimes it
takes so long, that the horses are fairly beat out, and can't scarcely
raise a gallop; and then a man stands by the post, with a heavy loaded
whip, to lash 'em on, so that they mayn't stand under the goose, which
aint fair. The whootin,' and hollerin', and screamin', and bettin', and
excitement, beats all; there aint hardly no sport equal to it. It is great
fun to all except the poor goosey-gander.'"

GAP. This pure English word is used properly of any breach of continuity,
as of the line of a saw's edge, or of the line of a mountain, as projected
on the horizon. Hence it is applied to such openings in a mountain as are
made by a river, or even a high road. Thus the Water-Gap; and, in
Virginia, Brown's Gap, Rockfish Gap, &c.

GAT. (Dutch.) A gate or passnge. A term applied to several places in the
vicinity of New York, as Barnegat, Barnes's gate; Hellegat, now called
Hell Gate.

GAWKY. A tall, ungainly, stupid, or awkward person.--Worcester.

Wert thou a giglet gawky like the lave,
That little better than our nowt behave.--Ramsay, Gentle Shepherd.

A large half-length [portrait] of Henry Damley represents him tall,
awkward, and gawky.--Pennanat's Scotland.

GARNISHEE. In law, one in whose hands the property of an absconding or
absent debtor is attached, who is warned or notified cf the demand or
suit, and who may appear and

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defend in the suit, in the place of the principal. State of Connecticut.--
Webster.

GEE. A term used by teamsters to their horses and oxen, when they wish
them to go faster. It is also used in directing oxen to the right or off-
side. In most parts of England it seems to be applied in the same manner.

TO GEE. To agree ; to go on well together.--Barnes's Dorset Glossary. Also
noticed in the Craven, Norfolk, and Cheshire glossaries.

GENERAL TREAT. A general treat is a treat of a glass of liquor given by a
person in a tavern to the whole company present.

I nearly got myself into a difficulty with my new acquaintances by handing
the landlord a share of the reckoning, for having presumed to pay a part
of a general treat while laboring under the disqualification of being a
stranger.--Hoffman, p. 211.

GENITON APPLE. An early apple, probably June eating. Provincial in
Suffolk, England.--Moor's Glossary. In the old dictionary of Cocker, 1700,
is Geunettings or Junetings, small apples ripe in June.

Dorothy gave her the better half of a geniton apple.--Margaret, p. 314.

GERRYMANDERING. To arrange the political divisions of a State, so that in
an election, one party may obtain an advantage over its opponent, even
though the latter may possess a majority of the votes in the State. This
term came into use in the year 1811 in Massachusetts, where, for several
years previous, the Federal and Democratic parties stood nearly equal. In
that year the Democratic party, having a majority in the Legislature,
determined so to district the State anew, that those sections which gave a
large numher of Federal votes might be brought into one district. The
result was that the Democratic party carried everything before them at the
following election, and filled every office in the State, although it
appeared by the votes returned that nearly two-thirds of the voters were
Federalists. Elbridge Gerry, a distinguished politician of that period,
was the instigator of this plan, which was called gerrymandering after
him.

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TO GET THE WRONG PIG BY THE TAIL, is to make a mistake in selecting a
person for any object. If a charge is made against a man, who on inquiry
proves to be the wrong one, it is said they have the wrong pig by the
tail. This is also called getting the wrong sow by the ear.

At the late election in Massachusetts, a Mr. C. C. Bell was elected by the
Whigs, but was afterwards induced by the opposite party to give them his
vote. Soon after, for fear of being forgotten, he wrote to a high
official, presenting his claims for reward, closing as follows:
"If you ean assist me now in your official capacity, you will command my
everlasting gratitude. I have lived in obscurity and am not ambitious for
office, but if my Democratic friends will not support me now, and help me
out of my dilemma, why then I must make the best of it I can.

"I did not seek the office I have now, and was not at the meeting when I
was elected, but the Whigs supposed they could by some means make me a
traitor to my party. But, sir, as the old saying is, they got the wrong
pig by the tail."

TO GIRDLE A TREE. In America, to make a circular incision, like a belt,
through the bark and alburnum of a tree to kill it.--Webster. Settlers in
new countries often adopt this method to clear their land; for when the
trees are dead they set them on fire, and thus save themselves the trouble
of chopping them down with the axe.

The emigrants purchase a lot or two of government land, build a log house,
fence a dozen ares or so, plough half of them, girdle the trees, and then
sell out to a new comer.--Mrs. Clavers, Forest Life, Vol. I.

GIST. The main point of a question or action; that on which it lies or
turns.--Jamieson. A word introduced from the language of law into very
common use.

TO GIVE HIM JESSY, is to give him a flogging. A vulgarism of recent
origin.

Well, hoss, you've slashed the hide off 'er that feller, touched his raw,
and rumpled his feathers--that's the way to give him jessy.-Robb, Squatter
Life, p. 33.

TO GIVE HIM THE MITTEN. This phrase is used of a girl who discards her
sweetheart. She gave him the mitten means that she gave her lover his
dismissal or discarded him. In England the phrase to give him the sack or
give him the bag, denotes the same thing.

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TO GIVE IT TO ONE is to rate, scold, or beat him severely.--Holloway,
Prov. Dict. Used in the same sense in America.

GIVEN NAME. The Christian name, or name that is given to a person, to
distinguish it from the surname, which is not given but inherited.

TO GLIMPSE. To get a glimpse of; as, 'I barely glimpsed him.'

GLUT. A wooden wedge.--New England. Mr. Pickering says this word is used
in England, and refers to Rees's Cyclopedia.

THE GO. The mode; the fashion. 'This is all the go.'

What! Ben, my old hero, is this your renown?
Is this the new go?--kick a man when he's down!
When the foe has knocked under--to tread on him then
By the fist of my father, I blush for thee, Ben!--Tom Crib.

GO AHEAD. To proceed; to go forward. A seaman's phrase which has got into
very common use.

I was tired out and wanted a day to rest; but my face being turned towards
Washington, I thought I had better go ahead.--Crockett, Tour Down East, p.
101.

We slip on a pair of India rubber boots, genuine and impenetrable, and go
ahead without fear.--N. Y. Com. Adv.

The specific instructions to conquer and hold California were issued to
Commodore Sloat, by Mr. Bancroft, on the 12th of July, 1846. Previous to
this, however, he had been officially notified that war existed, and
briefly instructed to "go ahead."--Ibid. June 13.

TO GO BY. To call; to stop at. Used in the Southern States.--Sherwood's
Georgia. Mr. Pickering says this singular expression is often used at the
South. "Will you go by and dine with me?" i. e. in passing my house will
you stop and dine?. "Its origin," observes Mr. Pickering, "is very
natural. When a gentleman is about riding a great distance through that
country, where there are few great roads, and the houses or plantations
are often two or three miles from them, a friend living near his route
asks him to go by his plantation, and dine or lodge with him."--Vocab.

THE GO BY. To give one the go by is to deceive him; to leave him in the
lurch.--Craven Glossary.

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TO GO FOR. To be in favor of. Thus, 'I go for peace with Mexico,' means I
am in favor of peace with Mexico, or, as an Englishman would say, I am for
peace with Mexico. This vulgar idiom is a recent one, and is greatly
affected by political and other public speakers, who ought to be the
guardians of the purity of the language instead of its most indefatigable
corruptors. In the following extract from a religious paper, the reader of
correct taste and feeling will hardly know which to admire most, the
sentiment or the language:

Will Mr. Greeley say that he or any other citizen has the right to oppose
"the Country"--that is, its laws--whenever he or they shall choose to
pronounce them "wrong?" We say, go for your country--right, as she may be
in some things--wrong, as she is, perhaps, in others; but whether right or
wrong, or right and wrong, (which is always nearer the truth in all her
proceedings,) still, go for your country.--Gospel Banner.

To decide in favor of, is another acceptation in which this phrase is
often used, especially in stating for which man or measure any particular
section of the country has decided, as, 'Ohio has gone for Clay,'
'Louisiana has gone for the annexation of Mexico.' Or still worse, 'Ohio
has gone Whig,' 'Louisiana has gone Loco-foco.' Other variations of the
expression follow.

TO GO IT BLIND. To accede to any object with out due consideration. Mr.
Greeley, in speaking of General Taylor's claims for the presidency, says

The Whig candidate must be fair and square on all the great questions
before the country. He would speak not of his own course, but the Whig
people could not go it blind.--N. Y. Tribune.
Meaning that the Whigs could not vote or go for General Taylor without a
knowledge of his principles.

TO GO IT STRONG. To perform an act with vigor or without scruple.

President Polk in his message goes it strong for the Sub-treasury.--N. Y.
Tribune.

The Evening Post goes it good and strong for the establishment of free
public baths.--Newspaper.

The Senate has of late years refused to take any part of the book plunder,
but they have gone it strong on the mileage.--Letters from Washington, N.
Y. Com. Advertiser.

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TO GO THE WHOLE FIGURE. To go to the fullest extent in the attainment of
any object.

Go the whole figure for religious liberty; it has no meanin' here, where
all are free, but it's a cant word and sounds well.--Sam Slick.

One half of you don't know what you are talking about; and t'other half
are goin' the whole figure for patriotism.--Ibid.

TO GO THE BIG FIGURE. To do things on a large scale.

Why, our senators go the big figure on fried oysters and whisky punch.--
Burton, Waggeries.

TO GO THE WHOLE HOG. A Western vulgarism, meaning to be out and out in
favor of anything. A softened form of the phrase is to go the entire
animal.

Of the Congressional and State tickets we can only form a conjecture; but
the probability is that the Democrats have carried the whole, for they
generally go the whole hog--they never scratch or split differences.--
Newspaper.

The phrase has been caught up by some English writers.

The Tiger has leapt up heart and soul,
It's clear that he means to go the whole
Hog, in his hungry efforts to seize
The two defianceful Bengalese.--New Tale of a Tub.

TO GO THROUGH THE MILL. A metaphor alluding to grain which has been
through the mill. A Western editor observed that the mail papers looked as
if they had been through the mill, so much worn were they by being shaken
over the rough roads. It is often said of a person who has experienced
anything, and especially difficulties, losses, &c.

GODSEND. An unexpected acquisition.

GOING. The state of the roads; the travelling. Ex. 'The going is bad,
owing to the deep snow or mud in the roads;' 'The going is good since the
road was repaired.'

GOINGS ON. Behavior; actions; conduct. Used by us as in England mostly in
a bad sense. See Carryings on.

Pretty place it must be where they don't admit women. Nice goings on, I
dare say, Mr. Caudle.--London Punch.

GOLD-THREAD. (Coptis trifolia.) A plant well known in medicine, valued for
its stomachic and tonic properties.

p. 160

GOMBO. The Southern name for what is called at the North Okra, the pod of
the hibiscus esculentis.

GOMBO. In the Southern States, a soup in which this plant enters largely
as an ingredient.

GONDOLA. A flat-bottomed boat or scow used in New England.--Pickering.

GONE GOOSE. 'It's a gone goose with him,' means that he is past recovery.
The phrase is a vulgarism in New England. In New York it is said 'He's a
gone gander,' i. e. a lost man; and in the West 'He's a gone coon.'

If a bear comes after you, Sam, you must be up and doin', or it's a gone
goose with you.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 18.

It may be the doctor can do something for her, though she looks to me as
though it was a gone goose with her'.--Major Downing, p. 87.

GONE WITH, for become of. 'What is gone with it' 'or with him,' for What
has become of it or him?--Sherwood's Georgia.

GONEY. A stupid fellow.--New England.

"How the goney swallowed it all, didn't he?" said Mr. Slick, with great
glee.--Slick in England, ch. 21.

Some on 'em were fools enough to believe the goney; that's a fact.--Ib.

GOODNESS. This inoffensive word is much used in a variety of ways by
people of all classes. Sometimes we hear from old ladies the exclamation,
'Oh, my goodness! denoting surprise. 'Goodness me,' 'goodness gracious,'
and 'goodness sake,' are also common. It is not peculiar to the Americans;
for we find a distinguished personage using it:

Now dont sleep, Caudle; do listen to me for five minutes; 'tisn't often I
speak, goodness knows.--Punch.

"The devil's in the cat, I swear!
(Cried cooky): goodness gracious! there!"
Whilst Molly shrieked "Ah, wo is me!"--Reynard the Fox, 57.

goodness me!
My father's beams are made of wood.
But never, never half so good
As those that now I see.--Wordsworth, Rejected Addresses.

Mr. Johnson says the Railroad company charges more than he thinks himself
authorized to pay; if he yields, other companies will enlarge their
demands, and goodness knows where he will find himself landed.--N. Y. Com.
Advertiser.

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Well, goodness me! it's mighty strange I can't call you to mind.--Georgia
Scenes, p. 22.

GOOSE. A tailor's smoothing-iron. It is a jocular saying that 'A tailor,
be he ever so poor, is always sure to have his goose at the fire.'--Grose,
Dictionary.

Come in, tailor, here you may roast your goose.--Shakspeare.

HAVE GOT. There are several corrupt or vulgar forms of speaking which have
arisen from a desire to distinguish between different uses of the same
word. Thus the verb to have is used in the sense of to hold, to possess
(Sp. tener), and also as an auxiliary (Sp. haber). In order to distinguish
the former use from the latter, many persons, both in England and America,
are accustomed to use the expressions 'I've got,' 'he's got,' &c., instead
of simply I have, he has, &c.

Then forcing thee, by fire he made thee bright;
Nay, thou hast got the face of man.--Herbert.

I have got a good mind to go to the play.--Pegge's Glossary.

GOUGE. Imposition; cheat; fraud.

R-- and H-- will probably receive from Mr. Polk's administration $100,000
more than respectable printers would have done the work for. There is a
clean plain gouge of this sum out of the people's strong box.--N. Y.
Tribune, Dec. 10, 1845.

TO GOUGE. To chouse; to cheat.

Very well, gentlemen! gouge Mr. Crosby out of the seat, if you think it
wholesome to do it.--N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 26, 1845.

TO GOUGE. "Gouging is performed by twisting the forefinger in a lock of
hair, near the temple, and turning the eye out of the socket with the
thumb-nail, which is suffered to grow long for that purpose."--Lambert's
Travels, Vol. II. p. 300.

This practice is known only by hearsay at the North and East, and appears
to have existed at no time except among the lower class of people in the
interior of some of the Southern States. An instance has not been heard of
for years. Grose has the word in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, and
defines it as "a cruel custom practised by the Bostonians in America!"

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GOVERNMENTAL. Pertaining to government; made by government.--Webster.

TO GRAB. To seize; to gripe suddenly.--Grose. Webster.

GRADE. (French.) 1. A degree or rank in order or dignity, civil, military,
or ecclesiastical. 2. A step or degree in any ascending series; as,
'crimes of every grade.'--Webster.

This word is of comparatively modern use. It is not in the English
dictionaries previous to Todd's edition of Johnson in 1818. Mr. Todd calls
it "a word brought forward in some modern pamphlets," and says "it will
hardly be adopted." Mr. Richardson says the word "has crept into frequent
use." Mr. Knowles in the ninth edition of his dictionary introduces the
word as once belonging to the language, without comment. The British
Critic and other reviews have criticised the word as an unauthorized
Americanism; but, as we have seen, it has been adopted at last by the
English themselves.

While questions, periods, and grades and privileges are never once
formally discussed.--S. Miller.

To talents of the highest grade he [Hamilton] united a patient industry
not always the companion of genius.--Marshall's Life of Washington, p. 213.

TO GRADE. To reduce to a certain degree of ascent or descent, as a road or
way.-Webster.

This use of the verb is not noticed by any English lexicographer.

TO GRADUATE. To take a degree at a university. "This verb," says Mr.
Pickering, "was till lately used by us as a verb neuter or intransitive.
Ex. 'He graduated at the University of Cambridge;' but many persons now
say, 'he was graduated.' This is merely a return to former practice, the
verb being originally active transitive. Examples of both uses are found
in English writers.

This freshman college lived not to be matriculated, much less graduated,
God in his wisdom seeing the contrary fitter.--Fuller, Worthies.

We think dissenters, merely as such, should not be deprived of the
privilege of studying and graduating at the English Universities.--Eclec.
Review, April, 1811.

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GRAHAM BREAD. Bread made of unbolted wheat. It is easier to digest than
common wheaten bread, and is in consequence much used by invalids.

GRAHAMITES. People who rigidly follow the system of Graham in their
regimen.

A glance at his round, ruddy face would shame a Grahamite or tetotaller
out of his abstinence principles.--Pickings from the Picayune, p. 130

GRAHAM SYSTEM. A system of dietetics recommended by Sylvester Graham, a
lecturer of some celebrity on temperance and dietetics, which excludes the
use of all animal food and stimulating drinks, including tea, coffee, etc.

GRAIL. (Fr. grêle, hail.) Small particles of any kind.--Johnson.

Margaret curvetted about the mounds, she leaped the hollows (in the snow),
the fine grait glancing before her and fuzzing her face and neck.--
Margaret, p. 175

GRAIN. A particle; a bit. Ex. 'I don't care a grain;' 'Push the candle a
grain further from you.'

GRAIN. The universal name in the United States for what is called corn in
England; that is, wheat, rye, oats, barley, &c.

GRAND. Very good; excellent; pleasant. This is one of the words so much
abused among us by its too frequent use and application in senses
differing from its proper one. Ex. 'This is a grand day;' 'the sleighing
is grand;' 'what a grand time we had at the ball;' 'grand weather,' &c.
Mr. Hamilton in his remarks on the Yorkshire dialect, in England (Nugæ
Literariæ, p. 318), notices this word as common there in the same sense.

GRASS. A vulgar contraction of sparrow-grass, i. e. asparagus. Further
than this the force of corruption can hardly go.

GRAVY. Used in New England instead of juice, as the gravy of a pie.

GREAT. This word is used variously. A great Christian, for a pious man;
great horse is applied to a small pony, meaning a horse of good qualities
and bottom; great plantation, a fertile one.--Sherwood's Georgia.

GREAT. Distinguished, excellent, admirable. As, 'he is great at running;'
'she is great on the piano.'

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GREAT BIG. Very large. Often used by children.

GREATLE. A great while. Used on Long Island.

GREAT WITH. Intimate with; high in favor with.--Craven Glossary. Dr.
Webster notices this word in the same sense as a vulgarism.

Tho' he was great with the king, he always doubted the king's uncles.--
Froissart's Chronicles.

Those that would not censure or speak ill of a man immediately, will talk
more boldly of those that are great with him, and thereby wound their
honor.--Bacon.

GREEK. A soubriquet often applied to Irishmen, in jocular allusion to
their Milesian (!) origin.

GREEN. Uncouth, raw, inexperienced, applied to persons, a metaphor derived
from green or unripe fruit; vegetables or fruit that are growing. It
answers to the English use of the word verdant.

A little sassy rascal come up before me and stood and put his thumb to the
side of his nose, and looked up with an awful sassy look at me and
hollered out, "Aint ye green!"--Maj. Downing, May-day, p. 45.

GREENHORN. A raw youth, easily imposed upon, unacquainted with the world.--
Todd.

If by mistake, at Washington, an old-fashioned man should speak of
patriotism or the welfare of his country, he would be stared at as a
greenhorn just from the bush.--Hon. J. Whipple on R. Island Insurrection.

GREENS. Leaves and green vegetables used for food.

GRIT. Sand; rough, hard particles.--Johnson. With us it is often vulgarly
used to mean courage, spirit.

The command of a battalion was given to Mr. Jones, a pretty decided Whig
in politics, and like many other men of Zacchean stature, all grit and
spirit.--N. Y. Com. Adv., Letter from Washington, June 24.

Honor and fame from no condition rise. It's the grit of a fellow that
makes the man.--Crockett, Tour, p. 44.

If he hadn't a had the clear grit in him, and showed his teeth, and claws,
they'd a nullified him so, you wouldn't see a grease spot of him no more.--
Sam Slick in England, ch. 17.

GRITTY. Courageous; spirited.

My decided opinion is, that there never was a grittyer crowd congregated
on that stream; and such dancin' and drinkin', and eatin' bar steaks and
corn dodgers, and huggin' the gals, don't happen but once in a fellow's
lifetime.--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 106.

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GROCERY. A grocer's shop. This word is not in the English dictionaries
except in the sense of grocer's ware, such as tea, sugar, spice, etc.; in
which sense we also use it in the plural.

GROG. In the language of seamen, gin and water, or any spirit and water,
usually without sugar.--Todd.

We stopped serving grog, except on Saturday nights.--Cook and King's
Voyages.

Grog, says Grose, was first introduced into the British navy about the
year 1740, by Admiral Vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating
themselves with their allowance of rum or spirit.

GROGGERY. A place where grog and other liquors are drunk.--Webster.

GRUB. Food; victuals.--Grose.

The Bengalese, in cool apparel,
Meanwhile have reached their pic-nic barrel;
In other words, they have tossed the grub
Out of their great provision tub.--New Tale of a Tub.

GRUNTER. (Genus, pogonias. Cuvier.) One of the popular names of the fish
called by naturalists the Banded Drum. It is common to the Atlantic coast
south of New York. Grunts and Young Sheepskin are other names of the same
fish.--Nat. Hist. of New York.

GRUNTER. A hog.--Craven Dialect.

GUBERNATORIAL. Pertaining to government or to a governor.--Webster.

TO GUESS. 1. To conjecture; to judge without any certain principles of
judgment. 2. To conjecture rightly, or upon some just reason.--Johnson.

Incapable and shallow innocents!
You cannot guess who caused your father's death.--Shakspeare.

One may guess by Plato's writings, that his meaning as to the inferior
deities was, that they who would have them might, and they who would not
might let them alone; but that himself had a right opinion concerning the
true God.--Stillingfleet.

We thus see that the legitimate, English sense of this word is to
conjecture; but with us, and especially in New England, it is constantly
used in common conversation instead of to

p. 166

believe, to suppose, to think, to imagine, to fancy. From such examples as
the words to fix and to guess, it will be seen that while on the one hand
we have a passion for coining new and unnecessary words and often in a
manner opposed to the analogies of the language, there is on the other
hand a tendency to banish from common use a number of the most useful and
classical English expressions, by forcing one word to do duty for a host
of others of somewhat similar meaning. This latter practice is by far the
more dangerous of the two; because, if not checked and guarded against in
time, it will corrode the very texture and substance of the language, and
rob posterity of the power of appreciating and enjoying those masterpieces
of literature bequeathed to us by our forefathers, which form the richest
inheritance of all that speak the English tongue.

GUFFAW. A hearty, boisterous laugh; a horse laugh.

"You didn't let the Judge stray away from the swamp road?" inquired Hoss.
"Well, I predicate I didn't, for by this time he's travellin' into the
diggins most amazin' innocently;" and then the pair enjoyed a regular
guffaw!--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 75.

GUINEA CORN. (Holcus sorghum.) Egyptian millet, durrah of the Arabs, a
plant with a stalk of the size and appearance of maize. The grain grows in
a single pendant bunch at the top.

GUINEA GRASS. A species of grass cultivated in the West Indies, used as
fodder for horses.--Carmichael's W. Indies.

TO GULCH. To swallow voraciously.--Todd. Webster. In low language this
word is still heard in New England.

You are all a haggling, gulching, good-for-nothing crew.--Margaret.

GULL. 1. A cheat; a fraud; a trick. 2. A stupid animal; one easily
cheated.--Johnson.

I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it.--
Shakspeare.

That paltry story is untrue,
And forged to cheat such gulls as you.--Hudibras.

The author of the "Perils of Pearl Street," in describing one of the
swindling auction stores in New York, says:
The auctioneer and Peter Funk were ready to burst with laughter at the
prodigious gull they had made of the poor countryman.--P. 53.

p. 167

TO GULL. To trick; to cheat; to deceive.--Johnson. Seldom employed except
in familiar conversation.

Yet love these sorc'ries did remove, and move
Thee to gull thine own mother for my love.--Dame.

The Roman people were grossly gulled twice or thrice over, and as often
enslaved in one century, and under the same pretence of reformation.--
Dryden.

You colony chaps are gulled from year to year.--Sam Slick.

There is no people like unto this people [the Americans], so great yet so
little, so shrewd yet so easily gulled, so Christian yet so easily led
away from the old standards of truth.--N. Y. Com. Adv. Feb. 24, 1848.

GULLIBILITY. Credulity. A low expression.--Todd.

A silly hoax has been for some time going the rounds of the newspapers,
wallowed by all with eager avidity. Verily, the gullibility of the age is
marked and peculiar.--New York paper.

GULLY. A channel or hollow worn in the earth by a current of water.--
Webster. This word is much used in the United States. It is from the
French goulet, and in old English authors is written gullet.

The violent rain which had fallen in the night had suddenly brought down
such torrents of water through the hollow or gully, where they were in the
utmost danger of being swept away before it.--Hawkesworth's Voyages.

TO GULLY. To wear a hollow channel in the earth.--Webster. This conversion
of the noun into a verb is an Americanism. 'The roads are much gullied,'
is a common expression.

GUMMY! An exclamation, used in New England.

"Gummy!" retorted the woman. "He has been a talkin' about me, and a
runnin' of me down."--Margaret, p. 337.

GUMP. A foolish person; a dolt.--Webster. It is provincial in England, and
may be found in most of the glossaries.

GUMPTION. Understanding; skill.--Todd. This vulgar word is provincial in
most parts of England, and is noticed in the glossaries of Pegge,
Brockett, Forby, Jennings, and Halliwell. With us it is frequently heard.

What tho' young empty airy sparks
May have their critical remarks;--

p. 168


'Tis sma' presumption,
To say they're but unlearned clarks,
And want the gumption.--Hamilton, Ramsay's Poems, II.

He's a clever man, and aint wantin' in gumption. He's no fool, that's a
fact.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 26.

GUNNING. A colloquial word from gun. The act of going out with a gun in
order to shoot game.--Ash's Dictionary. This word is commonly used by
sportsmen in the Northern States in the sense given by Ash. At the South
they use the word hunting.

The Americans wore, however, mostly marksmen, having been accustomed to
gunning from their youth.--Hannah Adams, Hist. of New Eng.

SON OF A GUN. This phrase is heard in low language with us as in England.



H.
HABITAN. (French.) The lower class of Canadians of French origin.

My coachman was a Habitan, and I had a fine opportunity of studying the
conflicting traits of character which distinguish the race.--Lanman's Tour
to the Saguenay.

HACK. A hackney coach. The term hack is also frequently applied by women
to any article of dress, as a bonnet, shawl, &c., which is kept for every
day use.

TO HAIL FROM. A phrase probably originating with seamen or boatmen, and
meaning to come from, to belong to; as, 'He hails from Kentucky,' i. e. he
is a native of Kentucky.

HAINT, for have not. A contraction much used in common conversation in New
England.

HALF COCK. 'To go off at half cock,' is a metaphorical expression borrowed
from the language of sportsmen, and is applied to a person who attempts a
thing in a hurry without due preparation, and consequently fails.

Mr. Clayton of Georgia is a fine speaker; he is always ready, and never
goes off half cock.--Crockett, Tour down East.

HALF SEAS OVER. Intoxicated; drunk. A sailor's expression.

p. 169

HALVES. An exclamation entitling the person making it to the half of
anything found by his companion. In the Craven Dialect, says Mr. Carr, on
such occasions, if the finder be quick he exclaims, 'No halves--finder
keeper, loser seeker,' to destroy the right of the claim.

And he who sees you stoop to th' ground,
Cries halves! to ev'rything you've found.--Savage, Hor. to Scæva.

HAMMER AND TONGS. In a noisy, furious manner. Thus, 'They went at it
hammer and tongs,' is said of persons quarrelling. 'To live hammer and
tongs,' is said of married people who seldom agree.--Holloway.

Jonathan and the Spaniard will be at hammer and tongs.--Montreal Courier.

HAMMOCK. (Carib amaca.) A swinging-bed. This word, now in such general
use, especially among seamen, and the etymology of which has been so much
disputed, is undoubtedly of West Indian origin.

Cotton for the making of hamaccas, which are Indian beds.--Raleigh, Disc.
of Guiana, 1596.

The Brazilians call their beds hamacas; they are a sheet laced at both
ends, and so they sit rocking themselves in them.--Sir R. Hawkins, Voy. to
South Sea.

HAND AND GLOVE. Intimate, familiar; i. e. as closely united as a hand and
its glove. 'They are hand and glove together,' meaning very intimate, is a
common idiom here as in England.

TO HANDLE. To manage, to overcome an opponent; particularly in wrestling.
Ex. 'You can't handle him.'

HANDS OFF. A vulgar phrase for keep off; forbear.--Johnson.

They cut a stag into parts; but as they were entering upon the dividend,
"Hands off!" says the lion.--L'Estrange.

HANDSOME. In familiar language this word is used among us with great
latitude, and, like some other words mentioned in this Glossary, is
difficult to define. "In general," says Dr. Webster, "when applied to
things, it imports that the form is agreeable to the eye, or to the taste;
and when

p. 170

applied to manner, it conveys the idea of suitableness or propriety with
grace."

HAND TO MOUTH. 'To live from hand to mouth,' is said of a person who
spends his money as fast as he gets it, who earns just enough to live on
from day to day.

In matter of learning many of us are fain to be day-laborers, and to live
from hand to mouth, being not able to lay up anything.--Bishop Reynolds on
the Passions, ch. 37.

I can get bread from hand to mouth, and make even at the year's end.--
L'Estrange.

HANG. 'To get the hang of a thing,' is to get the knack, or habitual
facility of doing it well. A low expression frequently heard among us. In
the Craven Dialect of England is the word hank, a habit; from which this
word hang may perhaps be derived.

If ever you must have an indifferent teacher for your children, let it be
after they have got a fair start and have acquired the hang of the tools
for themselves.--Prime, Hist. of Long Island, p. 82.

He had been in pursuit of the science of money-making all his life, but
could never get the hang of it.--Pickings from the Picayune.

Suggs lost his money and his horse, but then he hadn't got the hang of the
game.--Simon Suggs, p. 44.

"Well, now, I can tell you that the sheriffs are the easiest men for you
to get the hang of; among all the public oflicers.--Greene on Gambling.

TO HANG AROUND. To loiter about. To 'hang around' a person, is to hang
about him, to seek to be intimate with him.

Every time I come up from Louisiana, I found Jess hangin' round that gal,
lookin' awful sweet, and a fellow couldn't go near her without raisin' his
dander.--Robb, Squatter Life.

HANGER-ON. A dependant; one who eats and drinks without payment.--Johnson.

They all excused themselves save two, which two he reckoned his friends,
and all the rest hangers-on.--L'Estrange.

HANG-NAILS. Slivers, which hang from the roots of the nails, and reach to
the tips of the fingers.--Forby's Vocab.

TO HANG UP ONE'S FIDDLE. To desist; to give up.

When a man loses his temper and ain't cool, he might as well hang up his
fiddle.--Sam Slick.

p. 171

TO HANKER. To have an incessant wish.--Johnson. Dr. Johnson says this word
is scarcely used except in familiar language. The same observation applies
to it among our selves.

The shepherd would be a merchant, and the merchant hankers after something
else.--L'Estrange.

HANKERING. Strong desire; longing.--Todd.

We shall be able to part both with the body and its delights, without any
great regret or reluctancy; and to live from them for ever, without any
disquieting longings or hankerings after them.--Scott, Christian Life.

I took an awful hankerin' after Sofy M--, and sot in to looking anxious
for matrimony, and begin to go reg'lar to meetin', to see if I could win
her good opinion.--Robb, Squatter Life.

TO HAPPEN IN. To happen to call in; to come in accidentally.

HAPPIFYING. Making happy. This mongrel barbarism, according to Mr.
Pickering, is sometimes heard in our pulpits.

HARD CASH. Silver or gold coin.

HARD DRINKER. One who drinks to excess; a drunkard.

HARDFISTED. Covetous; close-handed.--Todd.

None are so gripple and hardfisted as the childless.--Bishop Hall.

HARDHACK. (Spirea tomentosa.) The popular name of a well known and common
plant in pastures and low grounds. It is celebrated for its astringent
properties.

She made a nosegay of the mountain laurel, red cedar with blueberries, and
a bunch of the white hardhack.--Margaret, p. 206.

HARDHEAD. A fish of the herring species; the menhaden; so called in the
State of Maine.

HARD MONEY. A common term for silver and gold, in contradistinction from
paper money.

HARD PUSHED. To be bard pressed; to be in a difficulty; and especially, as
a mercantile phrase, to be hard pressed for money; to be short of cash.

As I said, at the end of six months we began to be hard pushed. Our
credit, however, was still fair.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 123.

A HARD ROW TO HOE. A metaphor derived from hoeing corn, meaning a
difficult matter or job to accomplish.

p. 172

Gentlemen, I never opposd Andrew Jackson for the sake of popularity. I
knew it was a hard row to hoe; but I stood up to the rack, considering it
a duty I owed to the country that governed me.--Crockett's Speech, Tour
down East, p. 69.

HARD RUN. To be hard pressed; and especially to be in want of money. The
same as hard pushed.

We knew the Tammany party were hard run; but we did not know it was
reduced to the necessty of stealing the principles of Nativism.--N. Y.
Tribune, Nov. 1, 1845.

HARDWOOD. A term applied to woods of solid texture that soon decay,
including generally, beech, birch, maple, ash, &c. Used by shipwrights and
farmers in Maine, in opposition to oak and pine.

HARUM-SCARUM. A low but frequent expression applied to flighty persons;
persons always in a hurry, as if they were hared or frightened themselves,
or haring others by their precipitancy; as, he is a harum-scarum fellow.--
Johnson.

HASTY-PUDDING. Indian meal stirred in boiling water into a thick batter or
pudding, and eaten with milk, butter, and sugar or molasses. Joel Barlow
wrote a poem on the subject, in which he thus accounts for its name:

Thy name is Hasty-Pudding! thus our sires
Were wont to greet thee fuming from their fires
And while they argued in thy just defence
With logic clear, they thus explain'd the sense:--
"In haste the boiling cauldron o'er the blaze,
Receives and cooks the ready-powder'd maize;
In haste 'tis serv'd, and then in equal haste,
With cooling milk, we make the sweet repast."
Such is thy name, significant and clear,
A name, a sound to every Yankee dear.--Canto I.

Hasty-pudding is a favorite dish in every part of the United States. In
Pennsylvania and some other States it is called mush; in New York,
suppawn. Hasty-pudding in England is made of milk and flour.
Sure hasty-pudding is thy chiefest dish,

With bullock's liver or some stinking fish.--Dorset Poems.

HATCHET. 'To bury the hatchet,' is to make peace. A phrase alluding to the
Indian ceremony of burying the war-hatchet, or tomahawk, when making a
peace.

p. 173

TO HAVE A SAY. To express an opinion. A phrase in vulgar use.

I picked out "Henry Clay" for my baby's name, but they all wanted to have
a say in it, and every one had a name that they liked the best of any.--
Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 198.

HAW-HAW. To laugh heartily.

I sat down in front of the General, and we haw-haw'd, I tell you, for more
than half an hour.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 189.

He burst out a larfin', and staggered over to the sophy, and laid down and
haw-hawed like thunder.--Sam Slick, 3d ser. ch. vii.

HAY BARRACK. (Dutch, Hooi-berg, a hay-rick.) A straw-thatched roof,
supported by four posts, capable of being raised or lowered at pleasure,
under which hay is kept. A term peculiar to New York State.

TO HAZE. To haze round, is to go rioting about.

OVER HEAD AND EARS. Completely overwhelmed. 'He sank over head and ears in
the river;' 'He was over head and ears in debt.'

In jingling rhymes well fortify'd and strong,
He fights intrench'd o'er head and ears in song.--Granville.

HEAD-CHEESE. The ears and feet of swine cut up fine, and, after being
boiled, pressed into the form of a cheese.

TO HEAD OFF. To get before; to intercept. Ex. 'The thief ran fast, but the
officer managed to head him off.'

HEAP. A crowd; a throng; a rabble.--Johnson. This very old sense of the
word is now provincial both in England and in this country. The
expressions, 'a heap of men,' 'a heap of horses,' are given by Holloway in
his Dictionary of Provincialisms. In the Western States it is in very
common use; as, 'A heap of people were present at the election,' etc.

Now is that of God a full fayre grace
That awhiche a lewd man's wit shall pace
The wisdom of an heap of lered men?--Chaucer, The Prologue.

A cruel tyranny; a heap of vassals and slaves, no freeman, no inheritance,
no stirp or ancient families.--Bacon. (Todd's J.)

An universal cry resounds aloud,
The sailors run in heaps, a helpless crowd.--Dryden.

A heap of likely young fellows courted me, but I refused them all for the
head coachman of Counsellor Carter.--Davis's Travels in America in 1798,
p. 237.

p. 174

HEAP. A great deal; much. So used at the South and West.

A correspondent in the Commercial Advertiser thus notices the various uses
of this word at the South:

Heap is a most prolific word in the Carolinas and Georgia among the common
people, and with children at least, in the best regulated families. "How
do you like Mr. Smith?" I asked. "Oh! I liked him a heap," will be the
answer, if affirmative, in five cases out of six. It is synonymous with a
majority, or a great many as, "We should have plenty of peaches, but a
heap of them were killed by the frost." It is synonymous even with very,
as, "I heard him preach a heap often;" "Oh! I'm lazy a heap."

I was not idle, for I had a heap of talk with the folks in the house.--
Crockett, Tour, p. 87.

Baltimore used to be called Mob-town; but they are a heap better now, and
are more orderly than some of their neighbors.--Ibid. p. 13.

HEARN, for heard.

TO HEAR TELL. To hear a report of; to hear of. The expression is
frequently heard among illiterate people in familiar conversation.
Examples of its use may be found in the earliest English writers.

For harde ye hau often time heard tell.--Chaucer, Somp. P. T.

Of which when the prince heard tell.--Spenser.

Pray, what is the meaning of Socdolager?" I asked. "I never heard of the
term before." "Possible!" said he; "never heerd tell of the Socdolager?
Why you don't say so!"--Sam Slick in England, ch. 15.

Now this was the very first piano that was ever heard tell of in the
Purchase.--Carlton's New Purchase, Vol. II. p. 8.

Now, Capting, I'm in distress; and I've always hearn tell that you sailors
was generous chaps.--Knickerbocker Mag. Aug. 1845.

I beg leave to suggest to you that the Tinnecum people don't care much
about the elements of music, of which they've hearn tell these two hundred
years.--Knickerbocker Mag. Vol. XVII. p. 37.

HEARTY AS A BUCK. A hunter's phrase, now in very common use.

Well, how d'ye do, any how?
So, so, middlin'. I'm hearty as a buck, but can't jump jest so high.--
Crockett, Tour, p. 8.

p. 175

TO HEAVE IN SIGHT. To come in sight; to appear. This nautical phrase
appears to have originated in the fact that an approaching vessel appears
to raise or heave itself above the horizon.

A Carolina waggoner had just crossed the rail-road, when the engine hove
in sight with the cars attached.--Crockett, Tour down East. p. 16.

HEFT. Weight; ponderousness. A colloquial term common to England and
America.

Mr. Pickering says: "This noun is also used colloquially in America to
signify the greater part or bulk of anything, in expressions of this kind:
'A part of the crop was good, but the heft of it was bad.' "

TO HEFT. In the United States this verb means to lift anything in order to
feel or judge of its weight.

I remember the great hog up in Danwich, that hefted nigh twenty score.--
Margaret, p. 111.

HELLABALOO. Riotous noise; confusion. Provincial in England.

And the men of one idea
Found fault with those who had two,
And they wrangled and jangled and got so entangled,
That truth and plain sense were outrageously mangled
In the terrible hellabaloo.--The Devil's New Walk, Boston.

HELP. The common name in New England for servants, and for the operatives
in a cotton or woollen factory.

HELTER-SKELTER. In a hurry; without order; tumultuously.--Todd. Johnson.

Sir John, I am thy Pistol, and thy friend;
And helter-skelter have I rode to England,
And tidings do I bring.--Shakspeare.

HEN-HAWK. (Falco lineatus.) The popular name of the red-shouldered hawk of
naturalists.

HERN, for hers. A vulgarism often heard among the uneducated. It is
included by Pegge in his list of cockneyisms. See Hisn.

HET. Pret. and part. of to heat.--Pickering. Often heard in the mouths of
illiterate people.

p. 176

TO HIDE. To beat.--Carr's Craven Dialect.

When I was a little boy--they coaxed me to take all the jawings, and all
the hidings and to go first into all sorts of scrapes.--J. C. Neal,
Sketches.

TO HIFER. To loiter. Used in North Pennsylvania.

TO HIGGLE. To chaffer; to be penurious in a bargain.--Johnson.

Why all this higgling with thy friend about such a paltry sum? Does this
become the generosity of the noble and rich John Bull?--Arbuthnot, John
Bull.

HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY. In confusion. A low word.--Webster.

HIGHBINDER. A riotous fellow. New York slang.

HIGH ROPES. To be on the high ropes; to be in a passion.--Grose.

HIP. to have on the hip, is to have an advantage over another. It seems to
be taken from hunting, the hip or haunch of a deer being the part commonly
seized by dogs.--Johnson.

If this poor brach of Venice, whom I cherish
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I'll have our Michael Cassion on the hip.--Shakspeare, Othello.

When you want to get a man on the hip, ask him a question or two, and get
his answers, and then you have him in a corner.--S. Slick in England.

HISN, for his, or his own. A vulgarism used in the United States, and
embraced by Mr. Pegge in his list of London vulgar words.

HIT OR MISS. To do a thing hit or miss, is to do it at all hazards; that
is, with a chance of hitting or gaining, or of missing it; at all events.

HITCH. A difficulty; an impediment.

All the hitches in the case of McNulty being got over, the gentlemen of
the long robe set themselves at work in earnest.--N. Y. Com. Adv. 1845.

TO HITCH. To agree; to get along amicably.

I've been teamin' on't some for old Pendleton, and have come to drive a
spell for this old feller, but I guess we shan't hitch long.--Mrs.
Clavers, Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 116.

HITHER AND YON. This expression is often used in the country towns of New
England for here and there. It is

p. 177

never heard in our seaport towns.--Pickering. Grose has the expression in
his Prov. Glossary in the same sense. He calls it a Northern phrase,
though it does not appear in Brockett's Glossary.

HO. A word used by teamsters to stop their teams. It has been used as a
noun, for stop; moderation; bounds.--Webster. See Whoa.

Because, forsooth, some odd poet or some such fantastic fellows make much
on him, there's no ho with him; the vile dandiprat will overlook the
proudest of his acquaintance.--Lingua, Old Play.

Mr. Malone says it is yet common in Ireland; as, 'there's no ho in him,'
that is, he knows no bounds. This expression is common in the United
States.

HOBBLE. A scrape; a state of perplexity.--Carr's Craven Glossary.

Now, Capt. Cleveland, will you get us out of this hobble?--Pirate, III.

HOBSON'S CHOICE. An expression often used, denoting that kind of choice in
which there is no alternative. The caprice of Hobson, the Cambridge
carrier, who died in 1630, is said to have given rise to it.--Todd. The
common phrase is, 'It's Hobson's choice--that or none.'

Hobson kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for
travelling; but when a man came for a horse, he was led into the stable,
where there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse next
to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well served according
to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice. From whence
it became a proverb, when what ought to be your choice was forced upon
you, to say, Hobson's choice.--Spectator, No. 509.

HOE-CAKE. A cake of Indian meal, baked before the fire. In the interior
parts of the country, where kitchen utensils do not abound, they are baked
on a hoe; hence the name.

Some talk of hoe-cake, fair Virginia's pride;
Rich Johnny-cake this mouth has often tryed.
Both please me well, their virtues much the same;
Alike their fabric as allied their fame.--J. Barlow, Hasty Pudding.

HOG-WALLOW. On some of the Western prairies, the ground has every
appearance of having been rooted or torn up by hogs, when it is very
rough; hence the name.--Kendall's Santa Fé Expedition, Vol. I. p. 58.

p. 178

HOITY-TOITY. An exclamation denoting surprise or disapprobation, with some
degree of contempt.--Webster.

Hoity-toity! what have I to do with dreams?--Congreve, Love for Love.

TO HOLD FORTH. To harangue; to speak in public.--Todd's Johnson.

A petty corjuror telling fortunes, held forth in the market-place.--
L'Estrange.

TO HOLD ON. To wait; stop. 'Hold on a minute;' originally a sea phrase.

TO HOLD UP. In allusion to the weather, to clear up, after a storm; to
stop raining.

Though nice and dark the point appear,
Quoth Ralph, it may hold up and clear.--Hudibras.

TO HALLOO.}
TO HOLLOW.} To shout; to hoot; to cry out loudly.--Todd's Johnson. This
word is generally written and pronounced hollow, which Dr. Johnson says is
incorrect. In England as well as in the United States it is vulgarly
pronounced holler or hollar.

List, list; I hear
Some far-off halloo break the silent air.--Milton.

He with his hounds comes hollowing from the stable,
Makes love with nods, and kneels beneath a table.--Pope.

You hollered so, and scared Obed, he's scared now.--Margaret, p. 53.

HOLLOW. All hollow is a common expression with us, and is also given by
Carr in his Craven Glossary. 'He carried it all hollow;' 'He beat him all
hollow;' that is, wholly, completely.

HOLPE, or HOLP. The old preterite and past part. of Help. "This antiquated
inflection of the verb to help is still used in Virginia, where it is
corrupted into holped."--Pickering. Johnson and Webster notice the word;
and Bishop Lowth observes in his Grammar, that it was used in conversation
in his day.

His great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To 's home before us.--Shakspeare.

HOLT, for hold. Ex. 'Death has got holt of him.'

p. 179

HOMINY. Food made of maize or Indian corn boiled, the maize being either
coarsely ground, or broken, or the kernels merely hulled.--Flint,
Mississippi Valley. Also written hommony. Roger Williams, in his Key to
the Indian Language, has the word aupúminea, parched corn--which, with the
accent on the second syllable, has much the sound of hominy.

The Indians sift the flour out of their meal, which they call samp; the
remainder they call homminy. This is mixt with flour and made into
puddings.--Josselyn's New England Rarities, 1672, p. 53.

HONEY-FOGLE. To swindle; to cheat; to lay plans to deceive. This singular
word, I am told, is used in Louisiana. Coney-fogle, to lay plots, a
Lancashire word, noticed by Mr. Halliwell in his Dictionary of Archaic and
Prov. Words, may be the origin of it.

HONOR BRIGHT! A protestation of honor among the vulgar; originating with,
and still retained in commemoration of, a late well-known Newcastle
worthy.--Brockett, North Country Words.

Now here's another--(honor bright!)
Once Reynard, as he prowled by night,
Knew of a slaughtered pig, &c.--Reynard the Fox.

HOOK. (Dutch, hock, a corner.) This name is given in New York to several
angular points in the North and East rivers; as, Corlear's Hook, Sandy
Hook, Powles's Hook.

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK. One way or other; by any expedient.--Johnson.

It can't be done by hook or crook,
Unless your Highness undertook
To see me through the matter clean.--Reynard the Fox.

TO HOOK. To steal. A common vulgarism.

ON ONE'S OWN HOOK. A phrase much used in familiar language, denoting on
one's own account; as, 'He is doing business on his own hook,' i. e. for
himself.

The South is determined that its favorite, Mr. Calhoun, shall go into the
National Convention as a candidate for the Presidency; and in case be does
not get the nomination, he will run on his own hook.--Newspaper.

I now resolved to do business entirely alone--to go on my own hook. If I
get rich, the money will all be mine.--Pearils of Pearl Street, p. 195.

p. 180

Are you hired to any one now, or do you go on your own hook?--Mrs.
Clavers, Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 116.

We have every reason to believe that the time is fast approaching when we
shall have our American Pope, our American Catholic Cardinals, and
American Catholic everything on our own hook.--N. Y. Herald, Oct. 1845.

I went to the opera in London, where I kept lookin' round; and when any
body laughed, I laughed too, and when they 'plauded, I 'plauded too; and
sometimes, jest to make 'em think I was a reglar Frenchy, I'd laugh right
out on my own hook, and 'plaud--then the fellers and gals would look at
me, much as to say, He's got some gumption.--N. Y. Fam. Companion.

HOOKEY. To play hookey, is to play truant. A term used among schoolboys.

HOOPLE. (Dutch, hoepel.) The boys in the city of New York still retain the
Dutch name hoople for a hoop.

HOOSIER. A nickname given at the West to a native of Indiana.

A correspondent of the Providence Journal, writing from Indiana, gives the
following account of the origin of this term: "Throughout all the early
Western settlements were men who rejoiced in their physical strength, and
on numerous occasions, at log-rollings and house-raisings, demonstrated
this to their entire satisfaction. They were styled by their fellow
citizens, 'hushers,' from their primary capacity to still their opponents.
It was a common term for a bully throughout the West. The boatmen of
Indiana were formerly as rude and as primitive a set as could well belong
to a civilized country, and they were often in the habit of displaying
their pugilistic accomplishments upon the Levee at New Orleans. Upon a
certain occasion there, one of these rustic professors of the 'noble art'
very adroitly and successfully practised the 'fancy' upon several
individuals at one time. Being himself not a native of this Western world,
in the exuberance of his exultation he sprang up, exclaiming, in foreign
accent, "I'm a hoosier, I'm a hoosier.' Some of the New Orleans papers
reported the case, and afterwards transferred the corruption of the
epithet 'husher' (hoosier) to all the boatmen from Indiana, and from
thence to all her citizens.

There was a long-haired hoosier from Indiana, a couple of smart-looking
suckers from Illinois, a keen-eyed, leather-belted badger from Wisconsin;

p. 181

and who could refuse to drink with such a company?--Hoffman, Winter in the
West, p. 210.

The hoosier has all the attributes peculiar to the backwoodsmen of the
West. ... One of them visited the city [New Orleans] last week. As he
jumped from his flat-boat on to the Levee, he was heard to remark that he
"didn't see the reason of folks livin' in a heap this way, where they grew
no corn and had no bars to kill."--Pickings from the Picayune.

HOP. A dance.--Johnson. This word has always been used here as in England
as a familiar term for dance; but of late years it has been employed among
us in a technical sense, to denote a dance where there is less display and
ceremony than at regular balls. At Saratoga Springs, where a large
majority of the people are strangers to each other, it is customary to
have a dance or hop at the fashionable hotel three times a week, during
the season when the waters are most resorted to.

HOPED. Used among the illiterate in North Carolina as the past part. of to
help. Ex. 'It can't be hoped.'--See Holp.

HOPSCOTCH. A game well known to our boys. A figure is drawn upon the
ground in the form of a parallelogram, which is subdivided in several
parts. A small stone is thrown successively into each, and is knocked out
by a boy hopping on one leg, without resting, until he has thrown and
knocked it from every division of the figure. Mr. Hartshorn notices the
word in his Shropshire Glossary.

HOREHOUND. (Marrubium vulgare.) One of the most common medicinal plants,
celebrated for its virtues in the cure of colds.

HORN. A horn; a glass of liquor.

The chaplain gave us a pretty stiff horn of liquor a-piece--and first-rate
stuff it was, I swow.--Burton, Waggeries.

HORNS. The feelers of a snail. Hence the proverb, To pull in the horns, To
repress one's ardor.--Johnson. In the United States the phrase is, To haul
in one's horns.

I tell you what, the highfliers that's been tryin' to be 'stockracy folkes
has hauled in their horns since Crockett cut out.--Maj. Jones's Courtship.

HORSE-COLT. "We frequently see in advertisements these terms, horse-colt,
mare-colt, &c. A horse-colt is simply a colt; a mare-colt, merely a
filly."--Portfolio, 2d ser. Vol. II. 309.

p. 182

HORSE-FOOT. (Genus, polyphemus. Lamarck.) The common name of a crustacea,
found in our waters from Massachusetts to Virginia. In form it much
resembles a horse's hoof. Also called Horse-shoe.

HOSS. (A corruption of the word horse.) A man remarkable for his strength,
courage, etc. A vulgarism peculiar to the West.

"Well, old fellow, you're a hoss!" is a Western expression, which has
grown into a truism as regards Judge Allen, and a finer specimen of a
Western judge "aint no whar," for besides being a sound jurist, he is a
great wag; etc.

Hoss Allen is powerful popular, and the "bar" hunters admire his free and
easy manners, and consider him one of the people--none of your stuck-up
imported chaps from the dandy States, but a genuine Westerner--in short, a
hoss!--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 70.

HOUSEN, as the plural of house. This old form is still used by the
illiterate in the interior of New England, as also in the State of New
York. It is provincial in various parts of England.

That day at housen so she stopped
She was behind for dinner.--Essex Dialect, p.14.

It is enacted by the court and authoritie thereof, that henceforth no
person or persons shall permit any meetings of the Quakers to bee in his
house or housing.--Plymouth Colony Laws, 1661.

HOUSEN--STUFF. Household furniture.

On the first day of May, at 1w o'clock, if the tenant isn't out, an
officer goes and puts him into the street, neck and heels, with his wife
and children and all his housen-stuff.--Maj. Downing, May-day in N. Y. p.
30.

HOUSE-WARMlNG. A feast, or merry-making, upon going into a new house.--
Johnson.

Overeat himself at a housewarming.--Addison, Guardian, No. 136.

HOVE. (Ang. Sax. hof, pret. of heafan, to heave.) This old preterite is
much used by illiterate persons in the United States.

HOW? for what? Used chiefly in New England, like the French comment? in
asking for the repetition of something not understood.

HOW-COME? Rapidly pronounced huc-cum, in Virginia. Doubtless an English
phrase, brought over by the original

p. 183

settlers, and propagated even among the negro slaves. The meaning is, How
did what you tell me happen? How came it?

HOWSOMEVER, for Howsoever. Not peculiar to America.

HUB. The nave of a wheel; a solid piece of timber in which the spokes are
inserted.--Webster. The word is also provincial in England.

HUBBY. Applied to rough roads, particularly when frozen; as, the road is
hubby. In the Craven Dialect of England the word hobbly is applied to
rough or stony roads.

HUBBUB. A shout; a tumult; a riot.--Grose. Todd's Johnson.

An universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds, and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence.--Milton, Paradise Lost.

People pursued the business with all contempt of the government: and in
the hubbub of the first day there appeared nobody of name or reckoning,
but the actors were really of the dregs of the people.--Clarendon.

Agreed for all the whole inhabitants to combine to assist any man in the
pursuit of any party delinquent; but if any man raise a hubbub, and there
be no just cause for the same, then for the party that raised the hubbub
to satisfy men for their time lost in it.--Staples, Annals of Providence,
R. I.

The King was sorry he couldn't ask Mr. Slick to dine with him; for the
Queen was very busy, as it was white-washing day, and they was all in a
hubbub.--Sam Slick, 3d ser. ch. 7.

HUCKABUCK. Coarse table linen. Scottish, hagabag.

Clean hagabag I'll spread upon this board,
And serve him with the best we can afford.--Ramsay's Poems.

HUCKLEBERRY. The common whortleberry.

HUCKLEBERRY ABOVE THE PERSIMMON. A Southern phrase.

The way he and his companions used to destroy the beasts of the forests,
was huckleberry above the persimmon of any native in the country.--Thorpe,
Backwoods, p. 166.

HUFFED. Offended.

Jason insisted that the young lady was huffed, as he called it, and that
she had thus refused to take the money merely because she was thus
offended.--Cooper, Satanstoe, Vol. I. p. 81.

HUGE PAWS. A nickname given to the working-men of the Loco Foco party in
New York.

p. 184

The huge paws ought to have another meeting at Tammany Hall before they
make their nominations.--N. Y. Herald, Oct. 7, 1846.

HULL. A vulgar pronunciation of the word whole very common in New England.

HUMBLE PIE. To make one eat humble pie, is to make him lower his tone, and
be submissive. Forby notices this among the proverbs of Norfolk, England.

HUMBUG. An imposition; a hoax. And as a verb, to impose upon; to deceive.
A low word.--Worcester.

"There is a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion,
which, though it has not even the 'penumbra' of a meaning, yet makes up
the sum total of the wit, sense, and judgment of the aforesaid people of
taste and fashion! 'This piece will prove a confounded humbug upon the
nation; These theatrical managers humbug the town damnably!' Humbug is
neither an English word, nor a derivative from any other language. It is
indeed a blackguard sound, made use of by most people of distinction! It
is a fine make-weight in conversation, and some great men deceive
themselves so egregiously as to think they mean something by it!"--
Student, Vol. II. (1751.)

Of all trades and arts in repute or oppression,
Humbugging is held the most ancient profession.
'Twixt nations and parties, and state politicians,
Prim shop-keepers, jobbers, smooth lawyers, physicians:
Of worth and of wisdom the trial and test
Is--mark ye, my friends!--who shall humbug the best.--Brookes.

Truly as a people we are easiiy humbugged, enormously bamboozled.--N. Y.
Com. Adv.

HUMDRUM. Dull; dronish; stupid; heavy.-- Todd's Johnson.

I was talking with an old humdrum fellow, and, before I had heard his
story out, was called away by business.--Addison, Whig Examiner, No. 3

HUMLY or HUMBLY, for homely.

HUMPTY-DUMPTY. Short and broad; as, He's a humpty-dumpty fellow.--Craven
Glossary.

HUMS AND HAHS. A familiar expression applied to one who hesitates in
speaking. 'None of your hums and hahs!' that is, be decisive, do not
hesitate. The expression is common in England.

p. 185

With dimpling cheek, and snowy band,
That shames the whiteness of his hand,
Whose mincing dialect abounds
With hums and hahs, and half form'd sounds.--Lloyd, Epistle.

I know'd well enough that warn't what he sent for me for, by the way he
humm'd and hawed when he began.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 20.

HUNK. A large piece or slice; a big lump. Ex. 'A great hunk of bread and
cheese.' It is a variation of the word hunch, which is used in England in
precisely the same manner. See Grose and Moor's glossaries.

HUNK. (Dutch, honk.) A goal, or place of refuge. A word much used by New
York boys in their play.

OLD HUNKER. See Barnburners.

HURLY-BURLY. A noise, or tumult; bustle; confusion.--Nares's Glossary.

And to thintent the easier, to bleave his enemy's eyes with suspicion of
fearfulness, he bade that they should remove with more noise and hurly-
burly, than the custom of the Romans was to do.--Udal, Luke, ch. 21.

HURRA'S NEST. A state of confusion.

"Now just look at you, Mr. Jones! I declare! it gives me a chill to see
you go to a drawer. What do you want? Tell me! and I will get it for you."

Mrs. Jones springs to the side of her husband, who has gone to the bureau
for something, and pushes him away.

"There now! Just look at the hurra's nest you have made! What do you want,
Mr. Jones?"--Arthur's Ladies' Magazine.

HURRICANE. (W. Ind. urican.) This word does not appear in any English
dictionary before 1720, when Phillips notices it, as a word denoting "a
violent storm of wind, which often happens in Jamaica, and other parts of
the W. Indies, making very great havoc and overthrow of trees, houses,
etc." Other dictionaries of a later period describe it as a violent wind
in the W. Indies. It is the Carib name for a high wind, such as is
described by Phillips, and was, doubtless, carried by seamen to Europe,
whence it became introduced into various languages.

I shall next speak of hurricanes. These are violent storms, raging chiefly
among the Caribee Islands; though by relation Jamaica has of late years
been much annoyed by them. They are expected in July, August, or
September.--Dampier, Voyages, Vol. II. ch. 6.

p. 186

HURRYMENT. Hurry. Used in the Southern States.

Somehow in my hurryment I drapt my pan, jest like I did when I heard Old
Blaze squeel.--Chron. of Pineville, p. 174.

HURRY UP THE CAKES, i.e. Be quick; look alive. This phrase, which has
lately got into vogue, originated in the common New York eating-houses,
where it is the custom for the waiters to bawl out the name of each dish
as fast as ordered, that the person who serves up may get it ready without
delay, and where the order, 'Hurry up them cakes,' &c., is frequently
heard.

HUSKING. The act of stripping off husks from Indian corn. In New England
it is the custom for farmers to invite their friends to assist them in
this task. The ceremonies on these occasions are well described by Joel
Barlow, in his poem on Hasty Pudding:

For now, the cow-house fill'd, the harvest home,
Th' invited neighbors to the Husking come;
A frolic scene, where work, and mirth, and play,
Unite their charms, to chase the hours away.

* * * * *
The laws of husking every wight can tell;
And sure no laws he ever keeps so well:
For each red ear a gen'ral kiss he gains,
With each smut ear, she smuts the luckless swains;
But when to some sweet maid a prize is cast,
Red as her lips, and taper as her waist,
She walks around, and culls one favor'd beau,
Who leaps, the luscious tribute to bestow.
Various the sport, as are the wits and brains
Of well-pleas'd lasses and contending swains;
Till the vast mound of corn is swept away,
And he that gains the last ear, wins the day.--Canto 3.

He talked of a turkey-hunt, a husking-bee, thanksgiving ball, racing, and
a variety of things.--Margaret, p. 48.

HYST. (Corruption of hoist.) A violent fall. Ex. 'His foot slipped, and he
got a hyst.' Mr. J. C. Neal thus discourses on this word: A fall, for
instance, is indeterminate. It may be an easy slip down--a gentle
visitation of mother earth; but a hyst is a rapid, forcible performance,
which may be done either backward or forward, but of necessity

p. 187

with such violence as to knock the breath out of the body, or it is
unworthy of the noble appellation of hyst. It is an apt, but figurative
mode of expression, and it is often carried still further; for people
sometimes say, "Lower him up, and hyst him down."--Charcoal Sketches.

I can't see the ground, and every dark night am sure to get a hyst--either
a forrerd hyst or a backerd hyst, or some sort of a hyst, but more
backerds than forrerds.--J. C. Neal, Sketches.



I.
I DAD! An exclamation used in the Western States.

"I dad! if I didn't snatch up Ruff and kiss him." Here the emotion of the
old man made a pause.--Carlton, The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 179.

IF SO BE AS HOW. A vulgar expression used by uneducated people in the
interior parts of this country and in England.

ILL. The common abbreviation for Illinois.

ILLY. A word occasionally used by writers of an inferior class, who do not
seem to perceive that ill is itself an adverb, without the termination ly.

TO IMPROVE. To occupy; to make use of, employ.--Pickering's Vocab. "This
word," says Mr. Pickering, "in the first sense, is in constant use in all
parts of New England; but in the second sense (when applied to persons, as
in the following example,) it is not so common."

In action of trespass against several defendants, the plaintiffs may,
after issue is closed, strike out any of them for the purpose of improving
them as witnesses.--Swift's System of the Colony Laws of Connecticut, Vol.
II.

Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Dr. Webster, dated Dec. 26th, 1789, has the
following remarks: "When I left New England in the year 1723, this word
had never been used among us, as far as I know, but in the sense of
ameliorated or made better, except once, in a very old book of Dr.
Mather's, entitled Remarkable Providences."

Ann Cole, a person of serious piety, living in Hartford, in 1662, was
taken with very strange fits, whereon her tongue was improved by a demon,
to express things unknown to herself.-- Cotton Mather, Magnalia, Book VI.

p. 188

IMPROVEMENT. The part of a discourse intended to enforce and apply the
doctrines, is called the improvement.--Webster.

The conclusion is termed, somewhat inaccurately, making an improvement of
the whole. The author, we presume, means, deducing from the whole what may
contribute to the general improvement.--British Critic. Vol. I. p. 379.

IMPROVEMENTS. Valuable additions or meliorations; as buildings, clearings,
drains, fences on a farm.--Webster.

IMMEDIATELY, for as soon as. Ex. 'The deer fell dead immediately they shot
him.'

IMMIGRANT. A person that removes into a country for the purpose of a
permanent residence.-- Webster.

IMMIGRATION. (Lat. immigratio.) The passing or removing into a country for
the purpose of a permanent residence.--Webster. An entering or passing
into a place.--Todd. Knowles. Richardson.

The immigrations of the Arabians into Europe, and the Crusades, produced
numberless accounts, partly true and partly fabulous, of the wonders seen
in Eastern countries.--Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, Vol. I.

Immigration has doubtless been a prolific source of multiplying words.--
Hamilton, Nugæ Literariæ, p. 381.

Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, observes that this word, as well as
immigrant, and the verb to immigrate, were first used in this country by
Dr. Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire, who gives his reasons for
their use. Immigrant is original with Dr. B.; but the others have long
been used by good English authors, though of course less frequently than
by American writers, who have more need of them.

IND. The common abbreviation for Indiana.

INDIAN BED. An Indian bed of clams is made by setting a number of clams
together on the ground with the hinge uppermost, and then kindling over
them a fire of brushwood, which is kept burning till they are thoroughly
roasted. This is the best way of roasting clams, and is often practised by
picnic parties.

INDIAN FILE. Single file; the usual way in which the Indians traverse the
woods or march to battle, one following after and treading in the
footsteps of the other.

p. 189

INDIAN GIVER. When an Indian gives anything, he expects an equivalent in
return, or that the same thing may be given back to him. This term is
applied by children in New York and the vicinity to a child who, after
having given away a thing, wishes to have it back again.

INDIAN MEAL. Meal made from Indian corn.

INFLUENTIAL. Having influence.--Pickering, Vocabulary.

Persons who are strangers to the influential motives of the day.--
Marshall, Life of Washington, Vol. V. p. 380.

This word has been called an Americanism; but such is not the case. "I
once," said Canning to Mr. Rush, "had a skirmish about language with him,
(Mr. Pinckney, of Maryland, our ambassador,) but he worsted me. I said
there was no such word as influential, except in America; but he convinced
me that it was originally carried over from Eng land." Lord Stafford has
remarked, that it was so good a word, they ought to bring it back. "Yes,"
said Mr. Canning, "it is a very good word, and I know no reason why it
should have remained in America, but that we lost the thing."--Rush, Mem.
of a Res. at London, p. 260.

I take the following examples from Richardson:
And now our overshadow'd souls (to whose beauties stars were foils) may be
exactly emblem'd by those crusted globes, whose influential emissions are
intercepted by the interposal of the benighting element, while the purer
essence is imprisoned within the narrow compass of a centre.--Glanville.

Thy influential vigor reinspires
This feeble frame, dispels the shade of death,
And bids me throw myself on God in prayer.--Thomson, Sickness.

IN FOR IT. Engaged in a thing from which there is no retreating.

You may twitch at your collar and wrinkle your brow;
But you're up on your legs, and you're in for it now.--O. W. Holmes,
Poems, p. 144.

TO INHEAVEN. A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists.

The one circumfiows and inheavens us. The infinite Father bears us in his
bosom, shepherd and flock.--Margaret, p.412.



J.
TO JAB. To strike or thrust with a knife; as, 'he jabbed a knife into me.'

JACKASSABLE. At a call for a meeting of citizens to repair a corduroy road
in Michigan, the Niles Advertiser winds up with the following stanza:

Those who would travel it
Should turn out and gravel it;
For now it's not passable,
Nor even jackassable.

Compare Boatable.

JAG. A small load.--Forby. Webster.

As there was very little money in the country, the bank bought a good jag
on't in Europe.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 168.

JAIL BIRD. A prisoner; one who has been confined in prison.--Webster.

JAW. In low language, gross abuse.--Johnson.

TO JAW. To scold; to clamor; to abuse grossly.--Todd.

He never heard freedom of speech afore, that feller, I guess, unless it
was somebody ajawin' of him.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 20.

TO JEOPARDIZE. To expose to loss or injury.--Webster. This verb is often
seen in the debates of Congress, as they are reported in the newspapers.
It is, doubtless, a corruption of the ancient verb to jeopard, as deputize
is of depute.--Pickering. This word is much used in the United States, and
less frequently in England.

The profound respect for the cause of truth which led Mr. Tooke not to
jeopardize its interests by any hasty assumption of its name and
pretensions for a discovery yet incomplete, constitutes one of his surest
holds upon posterity.--London Athenæum, March 18, 1848.

JERKED MEAT. Beef and other kinds of fresh meat dried in the open air
without salt. In Lower Canada and Newfoundland, fish are dried in the same
manner.

In genuine Western style they welcomed me with their dough biscuits and
jerked venison.--Carlton's New Purchase, Vol. II. p. 238.

p. 191

THE JIG IS UP, i. e. the game is up; it is all over with me.

The time was when I could cut pigeon wings, and perform the double shuffle
with precision and activity; but those days are over now--the jig is up.--
Kendall's Santa Fé Expedition, Vol. I. p. 62.

JIMINY. By Jimmy! An exclamation. Originally, gemini, or the Castor and
Pollux of ancient mythology; names by which the old Romans used to swear.

JIMSON. (Strammonium datura.) The popular name of a poisonous weed which
grows at the West and South. It bears beautiful flowers, but has a
nauseous smell. In the villages on the margins of the Western rivers it is
a great annoyance. Its name Jimson is supposed to be a corruption of
Jamestown, the place whence it is said to have been brought. It is used in
medicine in spasmodic asthma.--Flint's Mississippi Valley.

JOBBER. In the United States this word is applied to wholesale merchants,
who operate between the importer and retailer. Importers usually sell only
by the package. The jobber buys by the package and sells by the piece. The
retailer buys of the jobber, and sells in smaller quantities. In England
the word is used in an analogous sense, as of one who buys and sells
stocks.

There have been at times a good deal of jealousy and dissension between
the jobbers and auctioneers. They are in some measure rivals. Both sell to
the retail dealer; and the jobbers complain that the auctioneer injures
their business by selling as low to the country and retail merchant as to
them.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 102.

JOLLIFICATION. A scene of festivity or merriment. Used only in familiar
language.

Mr. Tolfrey's narrative of salmon and trout fishing, and otter shooting,
with private theatricals, and endless jollifications, come before us in a
startling contrast to the received ideas of collonial service.--Lond.
Spectator.

I have been already twice to the top of Vesuvius: the first time we had a
jollification near the crater--our dinner being entirely cooked in one of
the fumaroli.--Letters from Naples. London Athenæum, Dec. 6, 1745.

It was determined to commemorate our safe deliverance by a special
jollification.--Carlton, The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 204.

JOSEPH. A very old-fashioned riding coat for women, scarcely now to be
seen or heard of--Forby's Vocabulary.

p. 192

A garment made of Scotch plaid, for an outside coat or habit, was worn in
New England about the year 1830, called a Joseph, by some a Josey.

Olivia was drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a bank of flowers, dressed in
a green Joseph.--Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield.

NOT BY A JUGFULL, i. e. on no consideration; on no account.

Downingville is as sweet as a rose. But 'taint so in New York, not by a
jug full.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.

TO JUMP AT. To embrace with eagerness; as, 'I made him an offer, and he
jumped at it.'

JUMPER. A couple of hickory poles so bent that the runners and shafts are
of the same piece, with a crate placed on four props, complete this
primitive species of sledge; and when the crate is filled with hay, and
the driver well wrapped in a buffalo robe, the "turn out" is about as
comfortable a one as a man could wish.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, p.
200.

JUNK-BOTTLE. The ordinary black glass porter-bottle.

JUST NOW. Lately; now; presently; immediately. This very common phrase is,
perhaps, most generally used in the western counties.--Halliwell. The word
is used in the same senses among ourselves. Thus, many persons say, 'I was
there just now,' i. e. a short time ago; and also, 'I will be there just
now,' i. e. presently. This last use, however, is not regarded as correct.



K.
KATYDID. (Platyphyllum concavum.) The popular name of a species of
grasshopper so called from its peculiar note.

KEDGE. Brisk; in good health and spirits. Ex. 'How do you do to-day?' I am
pretty kedge. It is used only in a few of the country towns of New
England.--Pickering. Provincial in England.

TO KEEL OVER. A nautical term; to capsize or upset, and metaphorically
applied to a sudden prostration.

As it seems pretty evident that the sovereigns of Europe, instead of oc-

p. 193

cupying or sharing thrones, are predestined to the walks of private life,
it would be highly proper to cultivate in them a spirit of self-abnegation
and humility. If the royal parents wish to see their offspring "let down
easy" from their high estate, they will adopt this course. Keel over they
must, and a gradual careen would be much better than a sudden capsize. Now
that the people are assuming the rights and privileges of sovereignty, we
trust that they will have some consideration for princes in distress.--New
York Sunday Dispatch.

KEEP. Food; subsistence; keeping. In a letter to his brother, Bishop
Heber, speaking of Bishops' College costing so much, says:

Besides it has turned out so expensive in the monthly bills and necessary
keep of its inmates, that my resources, &c.--Vol. II. p. 319.

The cottager either purchased hay for the keep [of the cow], or paid for
her run in the straw-yard.--Edinburgh Review, Vol. LXI. p. 245.

TO KEEP. The phrase to keep shop is often shortened into to keep; as,
'Where do you keep now?' i. e. where is your place of business. Also, in
the sense of dwelling, which use of the word is provincial in the eastern
counties of England.

TO KEEP A STIFF UPPER LIP, is to continue firm, unmoved.

My friend, said he, don't cry for spilt milk; keep a stiff upper lip; all
will come out right enough yet.--Knickerbocker Magazine, VoL XXV.

Tut, tut, Major; keep a stiff upper lip, and you'll bring him this time.--
Chron. of Pineville, p. 160.

TO KEEP COMPANY. To court. A common term in the interior parts of New
England, applied to a man whose visits to a lady are frequent, with the
intention of gaining her hand. He keeps company with her,' i. e. he is
courting her, or 'They are keeping company,' i. e. are courting.

A young tailoress got a verdict against Mr. B--, a steady farmer who "kept
company" with her some months, and appointed a day for the wedding. [But
subsequently changed his mind.]--N. Y. Com. Adv.

TO KEEP IT UP. To prolong a debauch. 'He kept it up finely last night;' a
metaphor drawn from a game of shuttlecock.--Grose, Slang Dictionary.

KEEPING-ROOM. A common sitting-room; the parlor in New England. The term
is chiefly used in the interior, although it may sometimes be heard in the
sea-port towns. The same

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expression is used in Norfolk, England, for the "general sitting room of
the family, or common parlor."--Forby's Norf. Glos.

KEEP THE POT A BOILING, i. e. Don't let the game flag. A common expression
among young people, when they are anxious to carry on their gambols with
spirit.--Brockett's North County Words.

KETTLE OF FISH. When a person has been perplexed in his affairs in
general, or in any particular business, he is said to have made a pretty
kettle of fish of it.--Grose, Slang Dict. The same phrase is used in
America in colloquial language.

What a pretty kettle of fish we shall have to fry some of these days a
looking after Uncle Sam's fortune.--Crockett.

KIBLINGS. Parts of small fish used by fishermen for bait on the banks of
Newfoundland.

KICK. To kick up a row. To create a disturbance; the same as to kick up a
dust.

Mr. Polk admitted Santa Anna, because he knew him to be capable of
fighting nothing hut chickens, and to kick up a row in Mexico, and
disconcert government measures.--Mr. Bedinger, Speech in House of Rep.

TO KICK. To jilt. Ex. 'Miss A has kicked the Hon. Mr. B, and sent him off
with a flea in his ear.' Confined to the South.

KID. A large box in fishing vessels into which fish are thrown as they are
caught. In New England.

TO KILL. To do anything to kill, is a common vulgarism, and means to do it
to the uttermost; to carry it to the fullest extent; as, 'He drives to
kill;' 'She dances to kill.'

KILLDEER. (Charadrius vociferus.) A small bird of the plover kind; so
called from its peculiar note.

KILLHAG. (Indian.) A wooden trap, used by the hunters in Maine.

KILLING. Dangerous; heart-breaking.

For amongst his other killing parts,
He had broken a brace of female hearts.--Hood's Miss Kilmansegg.

There was a pleasant, playful breeze that sported with the well curled
locks of first-water dandies [on New Years Day], and gave them a certain
négligé appearance, which must have been really killing 'in my lady's
chamber or drawing-room.'--N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 2, 1844.

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The dandies forgot to oil their moustaches, or waste killing looks on
unthinking shop girls whom they met, &c.--Boston Times, Nov. 13, 1845.

KILTER. (Danish kilter, to gird.) 'To be not in kilter,' or, 'to be out of
kilter,' is to be out of order; not ready; not in good condition.

If the organs of prayer are out of kilter, how can we pray?--Barrow's
Sermons, Vol. I. p. 71.

KIND OF, KIND O', KINDER. In a manner, as it were. A sort of qualifying
expression; as, 'She made game on it kind o'.'--Forby.

Thogenes was asked in a kind of scorn, what was the matter that
philosophers haunted rich men, and not rich men philosophers?--Bacon.

It kinder seemed to me that something could be done, and they let me take
the colt.--Margaret, p. 325.

A kinder notion jist then began to get into my head.--Maj. Downing.

At that the landlord and officer looked kinder thunderstruck.--Downing.

KINDLERS. Small pieces of wood for kindling a fire; kindling-wood.

Put some kindlers under the pot, and then you may go.--Margaret, p. 6.

KINK. An accidental knot or sudden twist in a rope, thread, &c.; and,
figuratively, an idea, a notion.

It is useless to persuade him to go, for he has taken a kink in his head
that he will not."-- Carlton, The New Purchase.

I went down to Macon to the examination, whar I got a heap of new kink.--
Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 20.

KINNIKINNICK. An Indian word for a composition of dried leaves and bark
prepared for smoking, used in the Western States in place of tobacco. A
little tobacco is sometimes mixed with it to give it a flavor.

KITE FLYING. An expression well known to mercantile men of limited means,
or who are short of cash. It is a combination between two persons, neither
of whom has any funds in bank, to exchange each other's checks, which may
be deposited in lieu of money, taking good care to make their bank
accounts good before their checks are presented for payment. Kite flying
is also practised by mercantile houses or persons in different cities. A
house in Boston draws on a house in New York at 60 days or more, and gets
its bill

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discounted. The New York house, in return, meets its acceptance by re-
drawing on the Boston house. Immerse sums of money are often raised in
this manner--in fact, furnishing a capital for both houses to transact
their business with.

Flying the kite is rather a perilous adventure, and subjects a man to a
risk of detection. One who values his credit as a sound and fair dealer
would by no means hazard it.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 82.

KNOB. In Kentucky, round hills or knolls are called knobs.

Approaching Galena, the country becomes still more broken and rocky, until
at last a few short hills, here called knobs, indicate our approach to
Fever River.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, p. 303.

KNOCKED INTO A COCKED HAT. Knocked out of shape; spoiled; ruined. The
allusion or metaphor seems to be that of the hat of some unlucky wight,
which, by a violent blow, has been knocked into a sort of flattened, three-
cornered shape, resembling an old-fashioned cocked hat.

In consequence of a severe storm of rain and a freshet that followed, some
time during the winter of 1842, the mails were behind several days and no
news was received. In speaking of the storm, the New York Commercial
Advertiser states that they were unable to give any news, for, owing to
the storm and freshet, the mails were all knocked into a cocked hat. A
London paper, in quoting news from America, observed that a singular
occurrence had taken place, which had kept back the usual supply of news
from New York, as it appeared that the mails were knocked into a cocked
hat--a most extraordinary circumstance, the meaning of which it was wholly
out of their power to define.
A tall, slatternly looking woman, wearing a dingy, old silk bonnet, which
was knocked into a cocked hat, appeared yesterday before the Recorder.--
New Orleans Picayune.

At a Repeal meeting in New York, Mr. Locke was proceeding to speak the
influence this party would have, when he was interrupted by a gang of
rowdies, who, with the design of disturbing the meeting, cried out, "Three
cheers for O'Connell--three cheers for Repeal--and three groans for
Slavery." The six cheers for O'Connell and Repeal were given, but by the
time they came to the groans for slavery, they fonnd themselves all
knocked into a cocked hat.--New York Paper.

Between three and four tbousand persons were assembled at the Broad-

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way Tabernacle the other evening to hear a temperance lecture from the
talented Mr. Gough. There were "long--robed doctors" enough to have
constituted a standing army. The Rev. Dr.--, who opened the meeting with
prayer, got through in the very short space of three-quarters of an hour;
but it was full long enough to knock the spirit of the meeting into a
"cocked hat."--New York Tribune.

Sometimes the dog would get hold of the coon, like he was a going to
swallow him whole, and smash him all into a cocked hat.--Maj. Jones's
Court.

One of the omnibuses here, run full tilt right against a cart, and knocked
everything into a kind of cocked hat.--Maj. Downing, May-day in N. Y.

TO KNOCK DOWN. A word used at auctions. 'This article is knocked down to
you, sir;' meaning, that you are the purchaser. The phrase, 'A knock--down
argument,' is an argument that completely overthrows one's adversary.

When I have conversed with a slaveholder--and I assure you I have done so
very frequently--the only 'knock-down' argument is, "They are better off
than your poor whites at the North."--Letter from N. O.--Trib.

TO KNOCK ROUND. To go about.

I'm going to New York and Boston, and all about thar, and spend the summer
until pickin' time, knockin' round in them big cities, 'mong them people
what's so monstrous smart, and religious, and refined, and see if I can't
pick up some ideas worth rememberin'.--Maj. Jones's Sketches.

TO KNOCK UNDER. A common expression to denote that one yields or submits.--
Johnson.

For ten times ten, and that's a hunder,
I hae been made to gaze and wonder,
When frae Parnassus thou did'st thunder,
Wi' wit and skill,
Wherefore I'll soberly knock under,
And quat my quill.--Allan Ramsay, Poems.

Says General J--, 'Major, I reckon I can drink more Saratoga water than
you.' 'I'll bet a York shillin' of that,' says I. 'Done,' says he; and
down he went to the spring with a pitcher. I got a bucket, and down I went
to the spring. As soon as he saw me, he smashed his pitcher in a minit.
Says he, 'Major, I knock under.'--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 36.

TO KNOCK UP. To wear out with fatigue.--Halliwell.

It is the constant labour, unvaried by the least relaxation, which knocks
me up, and prevents me getting back my strength.--Lord Sydenham, Mem.

We care not for anything but shelter and food for our horses, which are
nearly knocked up.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, Let. 36.

KNOW-NOTHING. Utterly ignorant. Ex. 'A poor know-

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nothing creature, i. e. one exceedingly ignorant.--Norfolk Glossary. This
word is common in New England.

KONCKS or CONKS. Wreckers are so called, familiarly, at Key West, and the
place they inhabit, Koncktown.

KOOL SLAA. (Dutch.) Cabbage salad. Many persons who affect accuracy, but
do not know the origin of the term, pronounce the first syllable as if it
were the English word cold.

KY. The abbreviation used for Kentucky.