Civil War idiomatic language

[Jake Marley]

From an original copy of "The New American Cyclopedia" (1857):

AMERICANSIM, a peculiar form of the English language, used in the United States....It deserves to be remarked that many Americanisms current in the Southern, Western, and Middle States, are not used in New England, where the language...approximates more closely to that of the mother country.

Advantage, used as a verb instead of profit
Ambition, used as a verb instead of aspire
Autumn, meaning the months of September, October, and November, whereas, in England, that word comprises August, Septmber, and October
Bad, used in the sense of ill
Baggage, used to signify the trunks, boxes, valises, clothing, &c., of a traveller. The English say "luggage", and consider baggage pretentious.
Board, always used to signify all kinds of boards, In England pine and fir boards are ordinarily called "deals."
Bogus, meaning counterfeit, false, fraudulent.
Dry-Goods, a general term used by Americans to signify such articles as are sold by linen drapers, haberdashers, mercers, drapers, hosiers, &c. The word "haberdashery," is almost unknown in the United States.
Vegetable-egg, and sometimes egg-plant, is the American name for the fruit known in England as the garden-egg.
Gallowses, meaning braces to support the trowsers.
Hardware merchant, or hardware dealer, is the American name for an ironmonger
Pantaloons is the common American name for trowsers.
Pipe-laying is an Americanism, meaning fraudulent voting, and schemes or means to obtain fraudulent votes.
Posted-up is an Americanism for well-informed, thoroughly conversant with.

More later...

Nic Ellis

[marine05]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

These are interesting, there are others that are particularly New Englandish. Some of the influence came from the native people. For instance the phrase "cuts no ice" is from a native American phrase that sounds like it, and the meanings are alike i.e. "it has no great impact, or doesn't matter so much". This phrase is still used in NE and I have not heard it used in other parts of the country, except by people that hail from NE. The phrase has been used since the earliest times in NE.

s/f

DJM

[Anna Worden Bauersmith]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

May I please ask what are "haberdashers, mercers"?

Anna Worden

[marine05]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

May I please ask what are "haberdashers, mercers"?

Anna Worden

A haberdasher is usually a men's clothier or a dealer in notions.
A mercer is a dealer in expensive fabrics.

s/f

DJM

[markj]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

Here's another good source for Americanisms:

Bartlett, John Russell, 1805-1886. Dictionary of Americanisms. A glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. New York, Bartlett and Welford, 1848 (1st ed.), 1860 (2nd ed.), 1877 (3rd ed.).

To my knowledge none of these editions has ever been reprinted although they're available at many academic libraries.

We have all three editions here at Purdue University. I referenced all three when writing a couple of years ago about alleged use of "pard" by Civil War troops. Oddly, "pard" as a slang term does not appear in "Bartlett's" prior to 1877 despite evidence that it originated in the Far West at the time of the California Gold Rush. Whatever the case, after a vast search, I concluded that "pard" was occasionally used by troops but nowhere near the extent to which it's used by reenactors today.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[Hank Trent]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

The 1848 edition of Bartlett is online here:

http://www.merrycoz.org/BARTLETT.HTM

Though it's slightly post-war (1872), another good book is Americanisms; the English of the New World by Maximilian Schele De Vere, available online at http://tinyurl.com/2wcsd

It's one of the few places I've seen mention of "you all" being a common southern expression about the time of the war, though admittedly published seven years after. Anyone got "you all" positively dated to the wartime era?

You is curiously enough in the South almost invariably accompanied by the word all, and a person meeting a bachelor friend, will not hesitate to ask him, "How are you all?"

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Possum Skinner]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

Might I also suggest The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States by H.L. Mencken, 1919

This is another one that you can find pretty regularly at libraries. I have two copies that I bought from a discarded book sale at a local library. Regardless of what you might think of Mencken. (I personally don't care for his politics.) He was an excellent scholar of language and its development. This book was reprinted as late as 1980.

If you are serious about learning about the development of colloquialisms and slang in this country prior to 1920, this is probably the most in depth reference to check.

[Jake Marley]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

Suspenders is the genteel as gallowses is the vulgar, American name for the articles known in England as "braces."

From the "New American Cyclopedia" (1857).

A follow-up to my original citation, to clarify the use of "suspenders" versus "gallowses" versus "braces."

Nic Ellis

[marlin teat]

Re: Civil War idiomatic language

Might I also suggest The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States by H.L. Mencken, 1919

This is another one that you can find pretty regularly at libraries. I have two copies that I bought from a discarded book sale at a local library. Regardless of what you might think of Mencken. (I personally don't care for his politics.) He was an excellent scholar of language and its development. This book was reprinted as late as 1980.

If you are serious about learning about the development of colloquialisms and slang in this country prior to 1920, this is probably the most in depth reference to check.

Speaking of colloquialisms, one of the most interesting I have come across is contained in many period references to the “Hightower” river in n/w Georgia. This reference is found in many contemporary letters (all U.S.) and in the O.R. Having lived in this area all my life, I knew of no such river. It was not until I met a Cherokee linguist that I found out the Native-American pronunciation of Etowah was ha-to-wah, with the accent on the first syllable. Apparently the locals still used the native pronunciation and the occuping Federals misinterpeted ha-to-wah as Hightower instead of Etowah.