Olof E. Bosson

“ By slang, I mean the easy, natural, semi-technical language of special classes of society.
In English, as well as in most other languages, there are a great many terms and expressions which are chiefly used in certain trades and professions, and which are often unintelligible to outsiders. ”

“ A word or an expression, having been long in use exclusively among the working classes, or in the easy talk of certain trades, gradually penetrates into the colloquial speech of the cultivated—sometimes with a slight change of the sense—and suddenly appears one day in refined literary language. In actual English, there are many such expressions, originating partly from cant, partly from slang [2] . ”

“ Being allowed to develop itself in perfect liberty, it has gathered its method of expression from different ranges of language and society. Ever since the days of Shakespeare, English authors have made ample use of the easy every-day language of the lower classes; and, from the beginning of the 15th century, a rich, independent literature of slang and vulgar tongue has been developing [1] . ”

“ In the language of the uneducated ‘vulgus’, he will often meet with the first traces of an evolution which the literary and cultivated language will have to pass through in the future; on the other hand, he will recognize old forms and obsolete constructions which have passed out of use in the language of the cultivated. ”

“ Especially during the last decades, America has strongly influenced the development of the English language. Americanisms are to be found in great number both in colloquial English, and also in slang and cant. ”

“ He had, accordingly, frequent opportunities of communicating with individuals of different social position and different culture, and of studying their language. He does not aim at grammatical peculiarities, elaborate phrases, or rare expressions; his language is the average language of his own time, acutely observed and faithfully rendered. Giving us thus a true and varied image of the talk of different [6] classes and trades, his writings are specially suited to form the material for a study of slang and cant. ”

“ The colloquial language of the cultivated is mixed up with cant-expressions, the amount depending on the individual’s social position, his sex, his age, etc. Even literary language now and then borrows a term or a phrase from cant. Words such as cad, pal, rum, row, cove, etc., are nowadays understood in refined society, and are generally used in colloquial language. ”

“ The appended select list of recent dissertations dealing with English subjects and written in English illustrates the wide range of subjects handled in such treatises in Sweden. Should the works now issued prove acceptable to the British public, an endeavour will be made to arrange for the production in England of similar treatises bearing on English subjects in such a form that they may be likely to come within the cognizance not only of special students of Philology but of all persons interested in English Language and Literature. ”

“ Owing to the severe training and rigid scrutiny exacted, a large proportion of Swedish doctoral treatises attain a high standard of thoroughness; they are not mere scholastic exercises, testing and training the investigator for serious work in the future, but rather accumulations of valuable material, handled in a manner which is at once original, careful, systematic, illuminating and interesting. ”

“ To bunk, probably originally schoolboy slang, means to escape, run away, take to flight (because of ‘funk’, or to avoid punishment) .
To do a bunk: colloquial use of do with a verb stem used as a noun = achieve, perform, the action denoted by the verb. Cf. to do a drink. ”

“ The word is probably originally thieves’ cant, and has here the sense of arrest.
A cop or copper: a policeman.
The etymology of cop is doubtful. It has been associated with the Gipsy kap or cop = to take, with the root of the Latin cap-io, and with the Hebrew cop = a hand or palm. Farmer-Henley (Dict. of Slang and Coll. Engl.) observes that low-class Jews employ the term, and understand it to refer to the act of snatching. ”

“ Stodgy, probably schoolboy slang, is something heavy, unappetizing, or difficult to digest, lying heavily on the stomach, literally or figuratively: e. g. ill-cooked potatoes, a man whose conversation is all facts and no wit, etc. ”

“ Baccy is a vulgar form of tobacco, more vulgar than bacco. The formation of the word, with a gradual weakening of the last, unaccented syllable, is characteristic of vulgar language: baccou > baccŏ (or backer) > baccy. ”

“ Svea English Treatises.
Many of these dissertations, properly enough, deal with highly technical matters in a highly technical manner; and consequently most of them appeal exclusively to a limited class. In the department of Modern Languages there has been a marked preference for dealing with the dead and therefore more stable aspects of those languages; but of late years would-be doctors who have chosen a scholastic career have shown a tendency to choose modern subjects of general interest which are likely to prove directly profitable in their school-work. ”

“ Constructions with To be and the Present Participle are used colloquially, with the intention of vividness, in many cases where there is no particular reason to stress the fact that a thought is just a going on, a tendency especially characteristic of the Celtic-speaking Englishman. The uneducated vulgus have a strong predilection for these constructions and overdo them, as in the following examples, where there is not any reason at all for using them ”

“ Young London clerk.
Savey (savvy) is a common vulgarism for knowing, knowledge; as verb: to know, to understand.
Do you savey? = Do you know, do you understand? He had plenty of savey = of savoir faire, or savoir vivre. ”

“ To be mashed on and to be spoony on are rather common expressions for to be in love with. (Cf. to be nuts on.)
According to Leland, the term mashed originates from the Gipsy-word mash = masher-ava: allure; according to others, it is a variation of smash [6] . (Smite, smitten is used in the same sense.) ”

“ Also: to train in physical acquirements, e. g. in (= tutor or traince in Standard English) cricket or rowing.
A coach: a person who trains another (but more disparaging) ; analogous terms are crammer, feeder, grinder.
The word is originally schoolboy and academical slang, but now in general use among all classes. ”

“ The samples I have found in Jerome (Three Men in a Boat 221, Woodb. Farm 8 + 10 + 56) are obviously all dialectic.
The uncommon form warn’t instead of wasn’t occurs in Woodb. Farm (p. 8, 1) , but is evidently also dialectic.
Of the common anomalous form they’s instead of they are there is no example in Jerome.
To Have.
Have not and has not are regularly transformed into ain’t. ”

“ A cultivated young man.
= regular, real, thorough-going.
Cf. a fair swindle, a fair old brute, a fair devil, etc.
[55]
fake
A ’alf-brother, who’s always got to be spry with some fake about ’is lineage. (T. T. T. 138. 22.) ”