Mencken as quoted author
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Found: 217 entries
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1. adviser (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 242 ``Most English
universities have deans of faculties much like our own, and
some of them have lately laid in deans of women, and even
advisers to women students. ''
2. Afro- (1944) H. L. Mencken in Amer. Speech XIX. 161 ``When the
New York Times announced in an editorial on March 7, 1930, that
it would capitalize the word Negro thereafter, there were loud
hosannahs from the Aframerican intelligentsia. ''
3. ain't (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 146 ``Ain't is already
tolerably respectable in the first person..`ain't I in this?'
''
4. American (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) i. iii. 23 ``This
occasional tolerance for things American was never extended to
the American language.''
5. American (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 26 ``American thus shows
its character in a constant experimentation,..a steady reaching
out for new and vivid forms. ''
6. Americanis(1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) i. i. 12 ``The
period from the gathering of the Revolution to the turn of the
century was one of immense activity in the concoction and
launching of new Americanisms, and more of them came into the
language than at any time between the earliest colonial days
and the rush to the West. ''
7. Apache (1945) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 186 ``During
the [1914-18] war or soon afterward apache-dancers began to
appear in the United States. ''
8. auto (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 110 ``Auto is almost unknown
[in England], and with it the verb to auto. ''
9. beauty (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 573
``Beauty-parlor began to appear before World War I, and soon
afterward it was displaced by beauty-shop. Sometimes the latter
is spelled beauty-shoppe, or even beaut&eacu.-shoppe. ''
10. bee (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 561 ``The flea's
eyebrows, the bee's knees and the canary's tusks will be
recalled. ''
11. best (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. 236 ``What we call
the rib chops are [in England] the best end of the neck or best
end. ''
12. biggie (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. v. 338 ``It [sc.
Variety] converts all the other parts of speech into nouns,
e.g.,..pink (a sexy picture), clicky (a picture making money),
cheapie, biggie, brush-off and vocal (a song). ''
13. bladder (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 159 ``Other
etymologists..have discerned German influences..in the common
use of Bladder as a derisory title for a small and bad
newspaper [cf. G. bl„.tter newspapers]. ''
14. blind (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. xi. 731 ``*Blind
ad., an unsigned newspaper or magazine advertisement. ''
15. blue sky (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. vii. 149
``Carruth..suggested that blue-sky, to indicate a bad
investment, might be from the German blauer dunst.''
16. bogusness (1921) H. L. Mencken Prejudices 2nd Ser. i. ix. 79
``The old bogusness hangs about them [sc. the intelligentsia],
as about the fashionable aristocrats of the society columns. ''
17. boloney (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 391 ``Most English
newspapers...still spell bologna (sausage) balony. ''
18. booboisie (1922) in Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4, 1946) xi. 560.
19. booking (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 453 ``Punch's
theatre article used to be headed `Our Booking Office'. Today
everybody speaks and writes of the box-office of a theatre.
Only a railway ticket-office is a booking-office. ''
20. Bostonese (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 179 ``The
educated speech of the State..is `untainted by Bostonese'.''
21. boulevard (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 546 ``Boulevard,
in some American cities, has of late taken on the meaning of a
highway for through traffic, on entering which all vehicles
must first halt. In England such a highway is commonly called
an arterial road. ''
22. buckaroo (1946) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) iv. 152 ``Buckaroo
seems to have dropped out.''
23. bushwa (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. 301 ``The
college boys and girls launched bushwah..and a number of other
thinly disguised shockers. ''
24. -cade (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) v. ii. 180 ``In the
case of motorcade, autocade, camelcade and aerocade,..a new
suffix, -cade, seems to have come in.''
25. casting (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. xi. ii. 704
``Terms emanating from Hollywood wits..*casting-couch for the
divan in a casting-director's office. ''
26. chamois (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 194 ``A large
number..give evidence of the American liking for short cuts in
speech, e.g...to chamois (or, perhaps more often, to shammy)
for to polish with chamois, to model for to act as a model. ''
27. cheapie (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. v. 338 ``It [sc.
Variety] converts all the other parts of speech into nouns,
e.g...clicky (a picture making money), cheapie, biggie,
brush-off and vocal (a song). ''
28. chicken (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 220 ``The barbecues
which began to dot the country with the rise of the automobile
soon offered *chickenburgers as well as hamburgers. ''
29. cigarette (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 361 ``The
English..are slow to follow American example in such forms as
cigaret and etiquet. ''
30. clothing (1940) Mencken Happy Days 101 ``They made no more
impression upon him than if they had addressed a clothing-store
dummy. ''
31. conch (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vii. iv. 378 ``The
inhabitants [at Key West] have invented the usual opprobrious
terms for one another, e.g., conch (a West Indian). ''
32. congresswo(1946) H. L. Mencken in Amer. Speech XXI. 81 ``The
Hon. Clare Boothe Luce of Connecticut, the only congresswoman
who may be described plausibly as both cerebral and
beautiful.''
33. cook (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. xi. 681 ``The
preparation of the opium is called cooking (or rolling) a
pill.''
34. coupe (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vii. 347, ``I
have..heard..coop for coup&eacu.. ''
35. customize (1934) H. L. Mencken in Words Nov. 5/2 ``Obviously
American..are such curious forms as..to customize. ''
36. cut (1941) H. L. Mencken Newspaper Days (1942) xi. 184 ``When
he got down his first dozen mugs..he cut loose with an exultant
yodel.''
37. cyclery (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 176 ``In Pasadena,
Calif.,..there is a hattery, in South Pasadena a cyclery.''
38. demolition(1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. 289 ``In an
Atlanta department-store the News-Record
found..demolition-engineers who were once content to be
house-wreckers. ''
39. demon (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. 244 ``An
Englishman..never uses rum in the generic sense that it has
acquired in the United States, and knows nothing of
rum-hounds,..the rum-trade, and the rum-evil, or of the Demon
Rum. ''
40. display (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. v. 160 ``Want-ad,
display-ad. ''
41. don't (1919) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. vi. 210 ``Don't has
also completely displaced doesn't, which is very seldom heard.
`He don't' and `they don't' are practically universal. ''
42. eastern (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang., Suppl. II. vii. iv. 128
``On the Eastern Shore [of Maryland], south of the Choptank
river, the dialect shows the influence of Tidewater Virginia...
It is often difficult to say of a strange Eastern
Shoreman..whether he comes from below the Choptank or above.''
43. ecdysiast (1940) Mencken Let. 5 Apr. in Amer. Lang. Suppl. I.
(1945) vi. vi. 585 ``It might be a good idea to relate
strip-teasing in some way..to the associated zo”.logical
phenomenon of molting... A resort to the scientific name for
molting, which is ecdysis, produces both ecdysist and
ecdysiast. ''
44. engineer (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. vi. 290 ``The
Engineering News-Record also discovered..a socio-religious
e[ngineer] (an uplifter), a social-e[ngineer] (the same),..a
human-e[ngineer] (another variety of psycho-analyst).''
45. -ette (1921) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 2) vi. 187 ``The
wide use of the suffix -ette in such terms as farmerette,
conductorette,..usherette and huskerette, is due to the same
effort to make one word do the work of two. ''
46. F (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 272 ``A surgeon is
usually plain Mr., and prefers to be so called, though he may
have M.D. on his card, along with F.R.C.S. (fellow of the Royal
College of Surgeons). ''
47. flannel (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. (1948) II. 486
``Several English correspondents say that the English for
wash-rag is really flannel, but others deny it. ''
48. flat (1963) Mencken Amer. Lang. xi. 731 ``Carnival workers,
and especially strong-joint or flat-joint operators, have a
more or less secret argot. ''
49. floor (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. (Suppl. II) xi. 719 ``Of the
more original words and phrases of the truckmen I offer a few
specimens:-floor-boarding... Running at high speed. ''
50. former (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. iv. 118 ``Such clumsy
quasi-titles as ex-United States Senator,..and former Chief of
the Fire Department. ''
51. forward (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. ix. 302 ``The
*forward-looker, whose belief in the continuity..of the
evolutionary process takes on the virulence of a religious
faith. ''
52. funeral (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. 287 ``When it
[sc. the mortician's business] is achieved the patient is put
into a casket and stored in the reposing room or slumber-room
of a *funeral-home. ''
53. Galgenhumo(1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 727 ``Not a
few of these terms show Galgenhumor, e.g., meat-wagon for an
ambulance. ''
54. Geheimrat (1943) H. L. Mencken Heathen Days vii. 91 ``Thus a
plain Mister became Doctor, a Doctor became Professor, and a
Professor became Geheimrat. ''
55. going (1916) H. L. Mencken Let. 10 July (1961) 85 ``You would
be a maniac not to go out for all that money while the going is
good. ''
56. goof (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 682 ``A
sodium pentobarbital capsule is a goof-pill. ''
57. goose-step(1923) H. L. Mencken Prejudices 3rd Ser. 10 ``The
most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs
and goose-steppers ever gathered under one flag. ''
58. goose-step(1923) H. L. Mencken Prejudices 49 ``The first made
them almost incapable of soldierly thought and conduct; the
second converted them into cringing goose-steppers. ''
59. ground-hog(1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (Second Suppl.) xi.
713 ``A brakeman is a..ground-hog. ''
60. ground-hog(1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. 718 ``A lineman's
helper..who never leaves the ground is a..groundhog. ''
61. guest (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) xi. ii. 586
``To guest, to appear as a guest. ''
62. gunk (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. v. 347 ``Gunk, a
self-emulsifying colloidal detergent solvent... Launched by the
Curran Corporation, Malden, Mass., in 1932. ''
63. gunsel (1946) Mencken Amer. Lang. xi. 582 ``The tramp..carries
a boy with him, to rustle food for him and serve him
otherwise..the boy is a punk,..guntzel. ''
64. gunsel (1946) Mencken Amer. Lang. 584 ``Gonov, which means a
thief to thieves, means a fool on the carnival lot, and the
same meaning is given to guntzel, which means, in the jungles,
the boy companion of a tramp.''
65. gutter (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. vi. 504
``*Gutter-crawling is practised by mashers who run close to the
sidewalk, hoping to pick up light-headed girls. ''
66. halfpenny (1908) H. L. Mencken Philos. Nietzsche 284
``Reich..has attained the ha'penny celebrity he seems to crave
in much the same manner. ''
67. hash (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 388 ``Of late
there has been a strong tendency..to omit the -ed ending...
Examples: mash potatoes, hash-brown potatoes, [etc.]. ''
68. heavy (1963) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 730 ``Heavy
man, one transporting narcotics.''
69. hist (1919) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. iii. 91 ``They still
cling, in their common speech, to such forms as h'ist for
hoist. ''
70. Hobson-Job(1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 41 ``Its variations show
a familiar effort to bring a new and strange word into harmony
with the language-an effort arising from what philologists call
the law of Hobson-Jobson. ''
71. honey (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. vii. 125
``Southern speech has suffered cruelly on the stage and in
talkies, where kittenish actresses from the domain of General
American think that they have imitated it sufficiently when
they have thrown in a few you-alls and honey-chiles. ''
72. hot-foot (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. v. 392 ``The
Army also discourages the old soldiers' game of hot-foot, which
consists in inserting matches between the soles and uppers of a
sleeping comrade's shoes, and then lighting them. ''
73. hully gee (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 664 ``Hully gee
(for Holy Jesus) was introduced by Edward W. Townsend's Chimmie
Fadden and Major Max (New York, 1895), but it disappeared with
the decay of the Bowery boy as an American comic type.''
74. hummer (1963) Mencken Amer. Lang. xi. 730 ``Hummer, any kind
of charge placed against a suspect so that he can be held
although there is insufficient evidence to hold him on the
charge for which he is really wanted.''
75. idem sonan(1919) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. viii. 273 ``In
America, with a language of peculiar vowel sounds and even
consonant&dubh.sounds struggling against a foreign invasion
unmatched for strength or variety..the legal rule of idem
sonans is of much wider utility than anywhere else in the
world.''
76. Inc (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 244 ``An Englishman
writes Ltd. after the name of a limited liability (what we
would call incorporated) bank or trading company, as we write
Inc. ''
77. Indiana (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 616 ``An aged
Indiana poetaster named John Finley. ''
78. Indianian (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. (Suppl.) II. 620
``Hoosier, at the start, did not signify an Indianan
particularly, but any rough fellow of what was then the wild
West.''
79. indoctrina(1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 306 ``The reds
who emerged from hiding on the establishment of the entente
cordiale with Russia in 1940..have revived and propagated..to
indoctrinate, [etc.]. ''
80. infant-sch(1921) Mencken Amer. Lang. (rev. ed.) 120 ``An
English boy whose father is unable to pay for his education
goes first into a babies' class..in a primary or infants'
school. ''
81. inshoot (1940) H. L. Mencken Happy Days 230 ``When I ventured
on an inshoot it was apt to be recovered, not by the catcher,
but by the third baseman.''
82. jit (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 296 ``For Negro..jit.''
83. kike (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 115 ``An Englishman..knows
nothing of our common terms of disparagement, such as kike..and
rube. ''
84. kinker (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 684 ``A
contortionist is a frog, bender or Limber Jim, a freak or
snake-charmer is a geek, and all performers are kinkers.''
85. kishke (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 217 ``In New York
City the high density of Eastern Jews in the population has
made almost every New Yorker familiar with a long list of
Yiddish words e.g.,..kishkes, kittl, [etc.]. ''
86. knowledgea(1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 423 ``The
English have many counter-words that fail to make the Atlantic
journey, e.g., knowledgeable. ''
87. Kriss Krin(1919) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. iii. 89 ``Another
example of debased German is offered by the American Kriss
Kringle. It is from Christkindlein, or Christkind'l, and
properly designates, of course, not the patron saint of
Christmas, but the child in the manger. A German friend tells
me that the form Kriss Kringle, which is that given in the
Standard Dictionary, and the form Krisking'l, which is that
most commonly used in the United States, are both quite unknown
in Germany. ''
88. lasso (1940) H. L. Mencken Happy Days 284 ``They lay in wait
in dark Greene street with their..lassos, and knives. ''
89. Lawd (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 664 ``Euphemisms...
For Lord: land, law, lawks, lawdy, lawsy. ''
90. legger (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 366 ``But of more
interest..are the words showing recent vogue affixes,
e.g...-legger, as in bootlegger and meatlegger. ''
91. lepper (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 362 ``Among
American horse fanciers a jumping horse is called a lepper.''
92. listen (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 317 ``It has been
suggested ..that it listens well may be from es h”.rt sich gut
an.''
93. lovey-dove(1946) H. L. Mencken in Life 5 Aug. 46/2 ``And bring
in a reign of peace, prosperity and lovey-dovey.''
94. lush (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 682 ``A creep-joint
or panel-house is one in which patrons are robbed, a roller or
mush-worker is a girl who robs them, and a lush-worker is one
who specializes in drunks. ''
95. mad ( 1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 80 ``In the familiar simile,
as mad as a hornet, it [sc. the word mad] is used in the
American sense. ''
96. manifest (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 582 ``A fast
freight is a manifest or red-ball. ''
97. many (1941) H. L. Mencken Newspaper Days (1942) xii. 193 ``The
poor old man..nursing a hangover from a Bar Association
banquet, had thrown in one too many quick ones, and so got
himself plastered. ''
98. marriage (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 475/1 ``Marriage
lines is confined to the vulgar. On higher levels marriage
certificate is used. ''
99. matte (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 699 ``Matte shot,
a film made with a section blocked out, to be filled later on
another set. ''
100. me (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) ix. 457 ``Him and me are
friends. ''
1. measle (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 383 ``False
singulars, made by back formation, are numerous, e.g.,..measle,
nor are they confined to the untutored.''
2. metro (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 110 ``In England..a subway is
always a tube, or the underground, or the Metro. ''
3. mezzo-brow(1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 325 ``The
search for a term to designate persons neither high-brows nor
low-brows has led to the suggestion of mizzen-brow and
mezzo-brow..but they have not caught on.''
4. mill (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 717 ``Writers'
cramp was cured..on the advent of the mill, i.e., the
typewriter.''
5. mill (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 724 ``There are
others [sc. new terms] that remain the private property of the
men working in automobile plants and of those who sell or
repair cars. A few specimens; Bald-head. A worn tire... Mill.
An engine [etc.]. ''
6. Milton (1922) H. L. Mencken Prejudices (1923) 3rd Ser. iii. 89
``A genuine artist..would have thoughts and feelings of his
own, and the impulse to give them objective form would be
irresistible... There are no mute inglorious Miltons, save in
the hallucinations of poets. The one sound test of a Milton is
that he functions as a Milton. ''
7. miss (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 124 ``The vulgar
American misuse of..Mis' (pro. miz) for Mrs...was so widespread
by 1790 that..Webster denounced it as `a gross impropriety'...
It survives unscathed in the speech of the common people. ''
8. mission (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 676 ``At the
bottom of the pile are the poor wretches..who..gravitate
dismally toward the big cities, to become beggars and
mission-stiffs.''
9. Missourian(1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. vii. 173 ``D.
S. Crumb..unearthed a great deal more that was specially
Missourian, e.g...buckshot land, poor clay soil. ''
10. moisturize(1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 402 ``Verbs
made of common nouns:..to moistureize. ''
11. moke (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 635 ``Moke was
thrown into competition with coon in 1899 by the success of
`Smokey Mokes', a popular song by Holzmann and Lind.''
12. Mormon (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 640 ``Utah calls
itself the Beehive State,..but the designation Mormon State is
far more popular, and seems likely to stick. ''
13. moss (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. xi. 742
``Mosshorn, an old steer; also, an old cowboy. ''
14. multip (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. xi. 756 ``Primip,
a mother having her first child... At subsequent deliveries she
is a multip,..or a para-two, three, etc. ''
15. murder (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 707 ``The
vocabulary of the jazz addict is largely identical with that of
the jazz performer...anything excellent is killer-diller,
murder or Dracula. ''
16. naughty (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 228 ``The child behaved
naughty. ''
17. navy (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 239 ``What we call..a
navy-yard is a dock-yard or naval-yard. ''
18. near (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 159 ``Many characteristic
Americanisms of the sort to stagger lexicographers-for example,
near-silk-have come from the Jews. ''
19. necker (1923) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 3) 373 ``Necker, one
given to cheek-to-cheek dancing. ''
20. Negrophobi(1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 408 ``Whenever
a new suffix appears in the United States, it is put to use. An
example is..-phobia, borrowed from the psychiatrists, and made
to do heavy duty in a multitude of nouns designating violent
aversions e.g.,..negrophobia..with attendant adjectives in
-phobic.''
21. net (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) v. 199 ``The
favorite verbs of the newspaper copy-desk are those of three
letters, e.g., to air,..to net. ''
22. New Englan(1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 198 ``Dr. R-M.
S. Heffner, who was born in 1892 at Bellefontaine, in the west
central part of the State [sc. Ohio], testifies that New
Englandisms were common there in his boyhood.''
23. Nietzschea(1908) H. L. Mencken Philos. Nietzsche iii. ii. 278
``We have a hero who calls himself a dionysian and offers
Nietzscheism as a substitute for Christianity. ''
24. nigger (1940) H. L. Mencken Happy Days 43 ``Sometimes a
black-hearted boy would sneak into the adjacent brickyard,
which was covered in large part with Jimpson weeds, plantains
and other such vegetable outlaws, and return with a large ball
of nigger-lice. ''
25. night (1913) H. L. Mencken Let. 17 Aug. (1961) 32 ``The title
`Night Life in Vienna'..has the air of a lure held out to the
Puritanical and dirty-minded. ''
26. nisei (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 608 ``The
designation nisei..for Japanese of American birth was seldom
heard, before Pearl Harbor, save on the Pacific Coast... Nisei
is sometimes spelled nissei. ''
27. nothing (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. ix. 392
``There may not be no nothing. ''
28. ofay (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) v. 214 ``The word
ofay, which may have come from the French au fait (signifying
mastery), is in general use in the Negro press of the United
States to designate a white person. ''
29. oiler (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 714 ``A tank-car
is a car or oiler. ''
30. okay (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 161 ``Dr. Woodrow Wilson is
said..to use okeh in endorsing government papers. ''
31. old (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 604 ``Maryland Free
State...has overshadowed all the old nicknames..including Old
Line State and Terrapin State. ''
32. one (1941) H. L. Mencken Newspaper Days (1942) xvi. 245 ``His
father had been, at one and the same time, a Confederate
general, a French nobleman, and a graduate of both Oxford and
Cambridge. ''
33. orphan (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 724 ``Orphan, or
off-breed, an obsolete model. ''
34. outfit (1943) H. L. Mencken Heathen Days vii. 89, ``I was
presently playing trios and quartettes with an outfit that
devoted four hours of every week to the job. ''
35. overage (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 366 ``Overage (a
bank term: the opposite of a shortage). ''
36. paddle (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 727 ``The
airmen..use many derisory terms in speaking of
themselves..e.g.,..paddlefoot..for a member of the ground crew.
''
37. pale-face (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 637 ``The
Negroes use various other sportive terms for whites, e.g.,
pale-face, chalk and milk. ''
38. pass (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 105 ``His [sc. an English
university man's] daily speech is full of terms unintelligible
to an American student, for example, wrangler, tripos, head,
pass-degree and don. ''
39. peck horn (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 705 ``It [sc.
jive] arose in the honky-tonks and tingle-tangles of the
pre-jazz era, and many of its current names for musical
instruments go back to that era or even beyond, e.g.,..pretzel
or peck&dubh.horn for a French horn. ''
40. percentage(1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 766
``Percentage man. A news photographer who makes a large number
of exposures, hoping that chance will give him a few good
pictures. ''
41. perk (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) v. 192 ``To perc (to
make coffee in a percolator). ''
42. Pete (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 668 ``Among the
cant terms of the jug-heavies are..soup or pete,
nitroglycerine.''
43. pie (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 678 ``Pie-card, a
union card used as a credential in begging. ''
44. pissoir (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 127 ``The French
pissoir..is still regarded as indecent in America, and is
seldom used in England, but it has gone into most of the
Continental languages. ''
45. pitcher (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vii. 352 ``On the
vulgar level amateur is always amachoor, and picture is pitchur
or pitcher. ''
46. place (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 248 ``We speak of
backing a horse to win, place or show; the Englishman uses each
way instead, meaning win or place, for place, in England, means
both second and third. ''
47. plug (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. xi. 739
``Plug, a good book that no one wants. ''
48. Polish-Ame(1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 673 ``The
Polish-American journalists are rather more careful than most.
''
49. potman (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 243 ``Barmaids do
the work, with maybe a barman, potman or cellarman to help. ''
50. pot-pie (1940) Mencken Happy Days iv. 59 ``The Rennert [Hotel]
also offered an oyster pot-pie that had its points. ''
51. potsy (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 750 ``Potsy, a
fireman's badge. ''
52. powder-roo(1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 640 ``During
the days of Prohibition some learned speak-easy proprietor in
New York hit upon the happy device of calling his retiring-room
for female boozers a powder-room. ''
53. premiere (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 387 ``A few of
its [sc. Variety's] characteristic inventions will suffice:..to
premier (often shortened to to preem). ''
54. printery (1921) Mencken Amer. Lang. (rev. ed.) 187
``Printery..appeared very early, and..has been reinforced by
many analogues, e.g., beanery, bootery [etc.]. ''
55. process (1945) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 417 ``To
process, now threatens to take its place in the language
alongside to contact... The New Dealers gave it a much wider
range..widening it to include human beings among its objects.
It has since been adopted..both in its older sense of doing
something to inanimate materials and in its new sense of
mauling and manipulating God's creatures. ''
56. propaganda(1949) H. L. Mencken in Philologica: Malone
Anniversary Stud. 317 ``There is..a desire to get rid of
circumlocution and the waste of words, as in..to propaganda, to
steam-roller, to belly-ache.''
57. pusher (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 681 ``A
marihuana smoker is a viper..and a peddler is a pusher. ''
58. put (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 449 ``He [sc. C. T.
Onions in 1936] noted that to put it across, to get it across,
and to put it over were already `firmly domiciled' in
England... They really got their vogue in the United States as
baseball terms. ''
59. put (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 191 ``The history of
baseball terms also deserves to be investigated, for many of
them have entered the common speech of the country, e.g...to
put it (or one) across (or over). ''
60. quaker (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 598 ``State
nicknames..of Pennsylvania... Quaker State. ''
61. raise (1921) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (1922) iv. 131 ``When
her wages are increased she does not get a raise, but a rise.
''
62. Rastus (1944) H. L. Mencken in Amer. Speech XIX. 172 ``In my
boyhood Cuffy had disappeared and Sambo was being supplanted by
Rastus. ''
63. rat race (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 707 ``The
vocabulary of the jazz addict... A dance is a rat-race or
cement-mixer.''
64. regular (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 254 ``When G.
K. Chesterton made his first visit to the United States he was
much upset when an admiring reporter described him as a regular
guy. ''
65. remain (1938) H. L. Mencken Let. 23 Apr. (1961) 427 ``Whether
I'll write anything for publication remains to be seen. ''
66. rep (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 690 ``Rep
company, a company presenting a r&eacu.pertoire of plays on the
road. ''
67. repossesse(1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vi. 293
``For the former [sc. second-hand] the automobile dealers..have
substituted reconditioned, rebuilt, repossessed and used. ''
68. reune (1949) Mencken in Kirby &. Woolf Philologica 316 ``The
embryologist of speech discerns several processes in the making
of such novelties [sc. new verbs]. Some are simply nouns
unchanged, e.g., to contact..others are back-formations from
nouns, e.g., to locate, to enthuse, to reune.''
69. rinse (1919) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. iii. 91 ``The
Yankees..still clung, in their common speech, to such forms
as..rench for rinse,..and the employment of precisely the same
forms by thousands of Irish immigrants..gave them a certain
support.''
70. rotisserie(1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 215
``R“.tisserie, with the accent omitted, seems to be an
Americanism. It signifies an eating-house wherein chickens and
butcher's meat are roasted at a charcoal-grill, usually in the
show-window of the establishment.''
71. roustabout(1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 763
``Roustabout, a laborer on an oil lease, not a member of the
rig crew. ''
72. run (1956) H. L. Mencken Minority Rep. 206 ``Why assume so
glibly that the God who presumably created the universe is
still running it? ''
73. salesman (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 588 ``American
milk-wagon drivers are called milk-salesmen and bakers'
deliverymen bread-salesmen. ''
74. Salisbury (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 429 ``During
World War I an effort was made by super-patriots to drive all
German loans from the American vocabulary. Sauerkraut became
liberty cabbage, hamburger steak became Salisbury steak. ''
75. salon (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 706 ``A performer
who..undertakes conventional music is a commercial, salon-man,
long-underwear or long-hair. ''
76. sandwich (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 580 ``Eat shop,
*sandwich shop. ''
77. save (1941) Mencken in New Yorker 24 May 22/1 ``He might very
well have saved his wind, for Bill soon had him. ''
78. schnook (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 757
``Schnuck.., a customer easily persuaded, a sucker. ''
79. scofflaw (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 174 ``The
announcement that scofflaw..had won was made on Jan. 15, 1924.
The word came into immediate currency, and survived until the
collapse of Prohibition. ''
80. self (1949) H. L. Mencken in Kirby &. Woolf Philologica 316
``So far I have heard of no verb made of what appears to be a
pronoun save to self. ''
81. sepia (1944) H. L. Mencken in Amer. Speech XIX. 166 ``Some of
them also use such terms as..sepia to get away from
the..inaccurate black, and in 1944 there was a Sepia Miss
America contest. ''
82. sheep (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 262 ``Many generic
names for alcoholic stimulants..sheep-dip, [etc.]. ''
83. shellac (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 644 ``When
a novelty is obvious it seldom lasts very long, e.g.,
shellacked for drunk.''
84. shoo-fly (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 311 ``Shoo-fly afflicted
the American people for at least two years, and `I don't think'
and aber nit quite as long.''
85. short (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 667 ``Short-con
workers operate on a modest scale, and are usually content with
whatever money the victim has on him at the time he is rooked.
''
86. showcase (1945) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. v. 387 ``A
few of its [sc. Variety's] characteristic inventions will
suffice: to ash-can, to angel, to showcase [etc.]. ''
87. sit (1943) H. L. Mencken Heathen Days vii. 91 ``Once, when a
baron sat in for a few sessions, we called him Count. ''
88. sitter (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 682 ``Women
who frequent taverns or night-clubs, getting a percentage on
the drinks they induce male patrons to buy, are..sitters.''
89. slave-driv(1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 674
``The [prison] guards are shields, screws,..slave-drivers or
herders. ''
90. sleep (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. i. 24 ``A sleeping-car sleeps
thirty passengers. ''
91. smut (1927) H. L. Mencken Let. 2 Dec. (1961) 305 ``Of my
inventions I am vainest of Bible Belt, booboisie, smut-hound
and Boobus americanus. ''
92. someplace (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 394
``The long-awaited grammarian of vulgar American..will have a
gaudy time anatomizing such forms as..`It was some place else',
[etc.]. ''
93. spit (1949) H. L. Mencken Mencken Chrestomathy xxx. 626 `` Is
it hot in the rolling-mill? Are the hours long? Is &dollar.15 a
day not enough? Then escape is very easy. Simply throw up your
job, spit on your hands, and write another `Rosenkavalier'. ''
94. split (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 691 ``Split
week, a week on the road divided between two or more towns. ''
95. spritz (1948) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 202 ``Spritz, to
sprinkle or squirt. ''
96. store (1948) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. x. 591 ``A
store-church is one set up in a vacant store or in the front
room of a dwelling house. ''
97. style (1924) H. L. Mencken Let. 7 Dec. (1961) 272 ``Have you
such a thing as a *Style Sheet for The Atlantic? ''
98. style (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 194 ``The
American liking for short cuts in speech, e.g...to style for to
cut in accord with the style. ''
99. tar (1944) H. L. Mencken in Amer. Speech XIX. 174 ``Pickaninny
was..used..affectionately. So..was tar-pot..signifying a Negro
child. ''
100. technic (1943) H. L. Mencken Heathen Days vii. 93 ``The
Fourth..went even worse than the Eroica, though it actually
makes much less demand on technic. ''
1. tend (1956) H. L. Mencken Minority Report 251 ``Unfortunately,
the machine thus devised to halt heresy also tends to halt
progress. ''
2. terp (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. v. 338 ``It [sc.
Variety] makes verbs of nouns, e.g...to preem and to terp. ''
3. thanx (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) viii. 406
``Such forms as burlesk..thanx and kreem..are used freely by
the advertising writers. ''
4. toe (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 324 ``So many
novelties swarm in... A large number come and go without the
lexicographers so much as hearing of them... At least
four-fifths of those which get any sort of toe-hold in the
language originate in the United States. ''
5. Turk (1945) Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 603 ``Turk is used
among Roman Catholic priests in the United States to designate
a colleague of Irish birth. ''
6. walk-up (1919) Mencken Amr. Lang. iv. 110 ``The term flat `is
usually in the United States restricted to apartments in houses
having no elevator or hall service'. In New York such
apartments are commonly called walk-up apartments. ''
7. wanderlust(1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 219
``Wanderlust..is used much more frequently in the United States
along with its derivatives, wanderluster (Eng. rambler),
wanderlusting and wanderlust-club. ''
8. want (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. 160 ``Ad-writer, want-ad,..and
ad-man, are already accepted in technical terminology. ''
9. way (1935) H. L. Mencken Let. 4 Jan. (1961) 386 ``You must yet
go a long way, of course, before you are eligible to it. ''
10. western (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vii. 358 ``The
chief characters of Western, or General American and of New
England and Southern American have been indicated. ''
11. while (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 209 ``Q-room..,
While-U-wait, and Bar-B-Q.., all of them familiar signs. ''
12. Winnipeg (1936) Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) x. 549
``Richmonder, Winnipegger, Montrealer, Lynner. ''
13. wisenheime(1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. v. 151 ``Several years
ago -heimer had a great vogue in slang, and was rapidly done to
death. But wiseheimer remains in colloquial use as a facetious
synonym for smart-aleck, and after awhile it may gradually
acquire dignity. ''
14. woman (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. iv. 121 ``*Women's wear, in
English shops, is always ladies' wear. ''
15. yen (1919) Mencken Amer. Lang. iii. 93 ``A great many of them
[sc. Chinese words] have remained California localisms, among
them such verbs as to yen (to desire strongly, as a Chinaman
desires opium). ''
16. youthify (1945) H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 573
``Beauty-parlor..was displaced by beauty-shop... The girls have
produced a considerable vocabulary of elegant terms to
designate their operations, e.g. to youthify. ''
17. zombie (1936) H. L. Mencken Amer. Language (ed. 4) xi. 587
``Any performer [in a film] not a Caucasian is a zombie. ''