Word: slange
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...Marsh in translating a portion of the "Wasps" of Aristophanes is very courageous in his attempts to turn Greek slang of the fifth century B. C. into the modern language of the street. The translator gives us a spicy bit of reading, but it is a question whether he has not gone too far in his desire to be true to his author. We are inclined to think that there is a hint of an anachronism here, but, however that may be, we have no difficulty in understanding Aristophanes through the medium of such a translation...
...prominent periodical published recently a sarcastic criticism of the present prevalence of what is called Harvard slang. If we were for a moment to analyze the character of Harvard conversation we would find that slang, if we may so term it, has become a constant quantity in all that we say. Professors "cut" and students "crib." We elect "soft" or "stiff" courses. We get a "whooper" or "plucked" in consequence. We "grind up for the semis" and by means of "guff" and "gall" we "skin through." This really is entertaining but hardly elevating. But where shall we stop? Shall...
...adopt their customs and their language. The transition from the refined conversation of home life or the puerilities of school life is strangely sudden; they are dropped or intensified almost immediately - and because this transition is so sudden we are led to ask seriously whether the use of Harvard slang is merely an affectation or an unconscious habit. Members of the freshman class may always be relied upon to betray their collegiate standing by an inordinate use of purely Harvard expletives. This would seem to argue affectation. But again the post-graduate will make use of the same terms with...
...prominent journal has recently published a sarcastic article on "Harvard slang" tending to show that although we are versed in many strange tongues and, strange to say, even in our own, we never speak in any of them, but express our ripest ideas for the most part in the questionable dialect of Romany. It is true, as the writer claims, that the use of slang at Harvard is almost universal. To illustrate. Let us drop from the college vocabulary that long list of slang words and phrases beginning with the ubiquitous "chestnut" and ending with the non-committal...
...would be impossible to enumerate even a small portion of the cant slang words in use, for every college has a dialect of its own, and a small dictionary would be required to contain the most common. Some persons claim that they can tell from what college a man hails by the slang he uses...