I collect ephemera and sometimes when I come across a book with interesting illustrations or pictures, that will become part of my stash. Well, today I want to share with you a few “Americanisms” from and old 1922 dictionary that I picked up at an estate sale. I found the Dictionary of Americanisms to be an interesting read. If you click on the image below you will be taken to the full sized png file. I think this would be neat addition to a heritage scrapbook page.
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While I was going through this section of the dictionary, I found it interesting how many of the terms dealt with the differences between American English words and those of the English. A lot of the words dealt with clothing or food and when listing the definition, it would refer to the “English” term to give the definition, for example, above where candy is the same as English “sweets”. And when I hear sweets, I don’t think of candy. Odd, don’t you think?
Another thing I found interesting is how some of the words I have never really heard used today, such as tanglefoot and picayune. I wonder if they have just dropped out of fashion or if they have been replaced with something else. Some of the words remind me of words my granny would say such as skedaddle and reckon. I never would have thought that these were words that would need explanation as an American term.
Then there is the blue envelope. I had never heard of that, since the phrase I am familiar with is “getting the pink slip”. I wonder how and when it changed from one to the other. As for down east referring to the New England States, where I live in Virginia, we refer to the New England States as the Northeast. I would think down east would be somewhere like South Carolina, Georgia or Florida.
Some of the terms are still used today, but I just don’t associate the things with them this dictionary did. When I hear levee I think of something built to hold water in or keep it out. As for homely, we always used that to describe a Plain Jane type…thinking of an ill featured person brings to mind someone like Frankenstein. And gutter snipe was not at all what I expected. I always thought of a gutter snipe as a little sassy brat. Never in a hundred years would I have guessed it was a poster.
I think my favorite of all is cheese it. I mean, aren’t those crackers? What a funny phrase! I just cannot imagine saying something like that. It kind of gives me the giggles.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this digital goodie. To think, these were in use almost 100 years ago. Look how they have changed since then!
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