Word: argot
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...hours; a transport strike in Paris paralyzed the Métro. As Premier Paul Ramadier's Government tried to break the strike, Paris' gentle autumn air grew heavy with menace. Armed, steel-helmeted guards stood outside barricaded subway entrances and bus depots. The Cocos (Paris argot for Communists) accused the Socialists of fomenting the strike, then absurdly belabored the Government for strikebreaking. (After De Gaulle's victory, the Communists prepared to call off the strike...
Footpads, pickpockets and housebreakers, with all the riffraff who lived by their wits, filled the underworld of London's alleys and gin shops with an argot of which traces still survive. "Frisking" meant searching, then as now. A watch was a "tick," a handkerchief was a "wipe," and "wipe priggers" (pickpockets) flourished among theater standees. A glass of gin was a "flash of lightning',, and too many flashes often lit the way to "Tuck 'em Fair" (the place of execution...
Concierges of Neuilly's swank apartment houses proselytize domestic servants. In workers' districts party propaganda does not shy from argot, but Sorlin takes care that his organizers mind their grammar and diction, lest bourgeois members be offended...
...Latin American sports argot contains many words borrowed from English and Hispanicized. Examples: beisbol, jutbol, tim, picker...
...heel. The decor-very modern—was shabby; the champagne-very expensive-was poor. The worn-looking, faded singer who came on half an hour after midnight matched the setting well. She had frizzled brown hair, a little black dress and cork-soled shoes. She was called La Piaf (Parisian argot for sparrow...