3 In England there is a distinction between headmaster and head master. The former is reserved for the chief pedagogues of so-called public-schools (see p. 502); the latter may be applied to the head of what we would call a public-school in the United States. The learned will find an illuminating discussion of this orthographical distinction in the eminent News of the World, Dec. 26, 1937.
4 In his speech to Congress on May 19, 1943, Winston Churchill announced that the British troops in North Africa had begun to drop the English lorry for the American truck, and that the Americans as a return courtesy, had agreed to use petrol. The second part of this was not supported, so far as I know, by any American authority.
1 Rating has been used in the English Navy to designate the rank or station a man holds on a ship’s books since the early Eighteenth Century, but it has been applied to the man himself only since the closing years of the Nineteenth.
2 At Long Last, by Marie Drennan, American Speech, April 1939, p. 156.
1 Mr. Harold M. Tovell of Toronto calls my attention to the fact that flapper occurs in the English translation of the diary of Mme. d’Arblay, published in London in 1846, Vol. VII, p. 253, as follows: “Alex is my companion, or rather I am Alex’s flapper.” But this does not seem to be a use of the word in the modern sense.
2 The following is from Mournful Numbers, by Colin Ellis; London, 1932, p. 15:
Bungaloid Growth
When England’s multitudes observed with frowns
That those who came before had spoiled the towns,
“This can no longer be endured!” they cried,
And set to work to spoil the countryside.
1 See AL4, pp. 40 and 226, n. 1.
2 One is to the effect that it is from C.O.P. (constable of police) which the English police used to write under their names on reports. Another is that it is a telegraphers’ abbreviation for chief of police. A third is that it derives from the fact that early English cops wore brass buttons, mistaken for copper by the street boys. These etymologies are discussed in Calling All Cars, by Malcolm W. Bingay, Detroit Free Press, Feb. 2, 1939.
3 I am indebted here to Mr. Douglas Leechman, of the National Museum of Canada.
4 I am indebted here to Mr. R. Raven-Hill.
1 On April 10, 1941, the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York was advertising a “Sunday strollers’ brunch, $1 per person, served from 11 A.M. to 3 P.M.,” in the Villager, p. 8.
2 The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was advertising a snack-bar in the New Yorker July 25, 1936, but apparently it had changed the English meaning, which is virtually identical with that of our lunch-counter, for its snack-bar offered “luncheon and dinner daily and Sunday.”
3 Governor was used in colonial America to indicate the college dignitary now known as a trustee, or, at Harvard, an overseer.
4 I am indebted here to Mr. Hartford Beaumont of New York.
5 Reprinted in the Baltimore Sun as Our Golf Terms Get British O.K. (editorial page), Aug. 8, 1931.
1 Traced by the DAE to 1864, but to be found in Harper’s Magazine, Aug., 1855, p. 429.
2 Stamp Notes, by R. A. Barry, New York Herald Tribune Books, July 12, 1936, p. 20-VII.
3 Post-Cards, by Florence S. Hellman and Erna R. Stech, American Notes and Queries, June, 1941, p. 44.
1 Aunt (or Aunty) and Uncle, as terms used in addressing aged colored people, are traced by the DAE to 1830. Both were in use before this for addressing whites. Granny and Goody are old in English. The former, about 1790, acquired the special American significance of a midwife. The latter, in early use in the colonies to designate any married woman, survives at Harvard as the designation of a woman who cares for students’ rooms. The DAE traces it, in that sense, to 1819.
1 Lost Mum and Dad: headline in the News of the World, April 19, 1936, referring to two working-class orphans. “I lost my Mummy and Daddy”; caption in an appeal for funds by the Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship in the London Times Literary Supplement, Jan. 1, 1914, p. 10. On Nov. 12, 1939 the Baltimore Sun published an article by Mrs. L. Baring-Wilson, recently returned from England, in which evacuated English children were represented as addressing their fathers and mothers, in letters home, as Pop and Mom, but I have never encountered either term in an English newspaper.
2 I am indebted for help here to Miss Margaret Butcher and H. W. Seaman.
3 The statement in AL4, p. 268, n. 1, that he was a native of Harrisburg caused the antiquaries of the town to inquire into his early history, but they could find no record of him. See Mirrors of Harrisburg, Harrisburg Sunday Courier, Feb. 18, 1940.
1 New York, 1937, p. 241.
2 A somewhat tame English ball game, traced by the DAE to 1636.
3 I take this definition from Baker.
4 Termitodoxa, Feb., p. 116.
1 Norton was often in court. Once he was asked on the stand to define wowser. “It means,” he said, “a fellow who is too niggardly of joy to allow the other fellow any time to do anything but pray.” I am indebted here to Mr. J. A. B. Foster, of Hobart, Tasmania.
2 I am indebted for information about Norton to Mr. Alan Tytheridge, late of Tokyo.
3 Tudor Architecture Restored, London Times, June 17, 1938.
4 Memorial to George V, London Times, June 17, 1938.
1 Amenities of Bath, London Times, June 24, 1938.
2 For all the foregoing see Holiday Resorts Spend Money, Manchester Guardian Commercial, June 24, 1938.
3 Everything But Haggis, Hong Kong Daily Press, June 12, 1936.
4 Famous Pottery Firm to Move, London Telegraph, May 15, 1936.
5 Macao Amenities, South China Morning Post, April 20, 1936.
6 Railway Amenities, London Telegraph, Sept. 4, 1937.
7 Thames For M.P.’s, London Telegraph, May 16, 1936: “Sir Nicholas Grattan-Doyle likes to see the Thames. He is asking Mr. Ormsby-Gore on Monday whether, in the interests of members [of Parliament] ‘whose sole outlook at present is a blank wall,’ he will provide a view of the river’s amenities by restoring some of the raised seats on the terrace [of the House of Commons].”
8 Small Burghs Handicapped, Edinburgh Scotsman, March 1, 1937.
9 I am indebted for most of these examples to the collection of the late F. H. Tyson.
10 But sometimes the American influence conquers even amenities, for example, in Rebuilding of Wellington Barracks, London Sunday Times, Dec. 11, 1938: “Barracks are now being built as homes where every modern convenience is obtainable.”
11 Lord Horder, London Sunday Times, Nov. 26, 1937.
1 At Last We Know What the Amenities Really Are, London Daily Express, Dec. 5, 1937.
2 Words Indicating Social Status in America in the Eighteenth Century, American Speech, Oct., 1934, p. 208.
3 I am informed by Mr. Milton Halsey Thomas, curator of Columbiana at Columbia University, that the M.B. was given by Columbia (then King’s College) from 1769 to 1774, by Harvard from 1788 to 1811, and by Dartmouth from 1798 to 1812. At King’s College a further year of study and a thesis were required for the M.D. In 1811 Harvard granted complimentary M.D. degrees to all previous M.B.’s who had not proceeded to the doctorate.
4 Dr. William Brady, who has conducted a health column in American newspapers since 1918, has tried to induce American dentists to put Dentor instead of Dr. on their signs, but in vain. I am indebted here to Mr. Fred Hamann.
5 Says an English correspondent: “Until he begins to specialize in surgery he is Dr. like any other medical man, though his degrees may be only those of MB. and Ch.B. (bachelor of surgery). It is a sign of rising in the world, proof that he has made the grade, i.e., has become the surgeon in a great hospital or teacher of surgery in a medical school, when he can be content with the title of Mr.”
1 Webster 1934 defines optometry as “scientific examination of the eyes for the purpose of prescribing glasses, etc., to correct defects, without the use of drugs.” In most States optometrists are licensed, and their license forbids them to tr
eat actual diseases. Such treatment is the function of the ophthalmologist, who is a regular M.D.
2 The Degree of Doctor, Aug. 26, 1939, p. 876.
3 Webster defines chiropody as “originally, the art of treating diseases of the hands and feet; as now restricted, the treatment of ailments of the feet, especially minor ailments.” The State licensing acts for chiropodists, like those for optometrists, usually define the bounds past which a practitioner may not go. When his patient presents a condition beyond his science he is supposed to call in an orthopedist, who is a regular M.D. The more high-toned chiropodists now call themselves podiatrists, a term based on the Greek word for foot.
1 Osteopathy is a system of healing based on the theory that most disease is caused by structural derangements which interfere with either the circulation of the blood or the free functioning of nerves. It was launched by Dr. A. T. Still (1828–1917), of Kirksville, Mo., in 1874. Osteopaths are now licensed in nearly all States. The course of instruction in their schools is much more comprehensive than that enjoyed by other irregular practitioners, and they have of late made a campaign for full recognition, including the right of admission to the medical corps of the Army and Navy. A statement of their doctrine as they understand it is in the Encyclopedia Americana; New York, 1932, Vol. XXI, pp. 28–34.
2 The Higher Degrees, in Tonics and Sedatives, Journal of the American Medical Association, April 1, 1939.
3 Chiropractic was introduced by D. D. Palmer in 1895. It is based upon osteopathy, but finds nearly all the lesions responsible for disease in the spinal column. It also adds a curative principle called innate intellectuality, which seems to be identical with the vis medicatrix naturae of the regular faculty. Chiropractors are licensed in nearly all American States. They have invented a number of fancy names to designate specialists within their fold, e.g., radionist, meaning one who operates “a calbro-mago wave radionic machine,” which “deals with disease vibrations … just as the radio registers vibrations of sound.”
4 Some of the varieties of quacks in practise in New York in 1926, with the doctorates they pretended to, are listed in AL4, p. 271, n. 1. Many others have appeared since.
5 Naturopathy is defined by Webster as “a system of physical culture and drugless treatment of diseases by methods supposed to stimulate or assist nature.” It has become, in the United States, a catch-all for every system of healing not embraced in the other schools. In not a few States naturopaths are licensed.
6 Advertisement of the University of Divine Science, Los Angeles, in the London (Ont.) Evening Lamp, Nov. 15, 1938.
1 There is already, in fact, a considerable confusion, as witness M.D. — Not Dr., by D. H. McCarter of Washington, Journal of the American Medical Association, March 11, 1944. “The physicians of the country,” said Mr. McCarter, “in connection with the preparation of many millions of forms required by various government activities, frequently neglect to have their degrees following their signatures and at times prefix their names with the word Dr., providing no other evidence that they are doctors of medicine. This occasionally works a hardship on us bureaucrats because, in order to assure proper distribution of certain types of materials, supplies, equipment and services, we must determine that the applicant is a physician rather than a doctor of science, of divinity, philosophy, naturopathy, chiropractic, podiatry, chiropody or whatever.”
2 Report of the President for the Year 1944, p. 55.
3 In Doctor’s Degrees in Modern Foreign Languages, 1940–41, Modern Language Journal, Nov., 1941, pp. 804–12, Henry Grattan Doyle listed more than 130 Ph.D.’s in the non-English modern languages for one academic year. This was the crop in 31 colleges only. Dr. Doyle confessed that his list was incomplete, and asked for additions.
1 The Title Professor, by N. R. L., Oct., p. 27.
2 Professor is thus defined in The Language of Modern Education, by Lester K. Ade; Harrisburg (Pa.), 1939, p. 29: “Basically, one who professes and pursues an academic subject. The term is applied to the highest academic rank of college and university teachers. It is incongruous to designate as professor a teacher or administrator of any institution below collegiate level, or anyone not actually holding a professional [possibly a misprint for professorial] rank in a college.”
3 Auctioneer Colonels Again, by E. L. Jacobs, Oct. 1935, p. 232.
4 Other discussions of professor are in Professor Again, by Charles L. Hanson, American Speech, Feb., 1928, pp. 256 and 257; Professor Again, by C. D. P., American Speech, June, 1929, pp. 422–23, and Professor or Professional?, by Mamie Meredith, the same, Feb., 1934, pp. 71 and 72. Miss Meredith reprints the protest of a Nebraska editor of 1869 who had been called professor by a colleague. She shows that in his own paper he permitted the term to be applied to a horse-trainer, a barber, the manager of a roller-skating rink, and a dancing-master.
1 May 27.
2 I am indebted here to Professor D. W. Brogan.
1 There are deans in the English and Scottish universities, but they are heard of much less than their opposite numbers in the United States. To the average Englishman a dean is an ecclesiastical functionary, e.g., Dean Inge. He may be either the head canon of a collegiate or cathedral church or a sort of assistant to an archdeacon. The English seldom use dean in our sense of any senior. What we would call the dean of the House of Commons is its father to them. For discussions of the heavy American use of the term see What is a Dean?, by J. R. Schultz, American Speech, Dec. 1935, pp. 319–20, and Why Dean?, by Z. S., American Speech, Feb., 1926, pp. 292–93.
1 London Magazine, July, p. 324.
2 Hamilton’s Itinerarium.… From May to September, 1744, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart; St. Louis, 1907, p. 94. See also Rattlesnake Colonel, by Albert Matthews, New England Quarterly, June, 1937, pp. 341–45.
3 Not infrequently a notable who started out as captain was gradually promoted, by public acclamation, to colonel. “When we first came here,” says Mulberry Sellers in The Gilded Age, by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner; Hartford, 1873, p. 515, “I was Mr. Sellers, and Major Sellers, and Captain Sellers,… but the minute our bill went through the House I was Colonel Sellers every time. And nobody could do enough for me, and whatever I said was wonderful.” “I wonder,” says Washington Hawkins, “what you will be tomorrow, after the President signs the bill.” “General, sir!” answers Sellers. “General, without a doubt.”
4 It should be explained for the benefit of English readers that Ruby, despite his given-name, was male, not female. He was born in 1869 and died in 1941.
5 For some reason unfathomable and greatly to be lamented, the DAE does not mention Kentucky colonel. It lists Kentucky bite (or Indian hug, traced to 1830), Kentucky fence (1837), Kentucky leggins (1817), Kentucky reel (1832), Kentucky yell (1845), Kentucky coffee (1859), Kentucky mahogany (1847), Kentucky ark (1824), Kentucky boat (1785), Kentucky jean (1835), Kentucky rifle (1839), and Kentucky Derby (1875), but not Kentucky colonel. It had become a byword so early as 1825, when John. Marshall, then Chief Justice of the United States, wrote a quatrain that still survives:
In the Blue Grass region
A paradox was born:
The corn was full of kernels
And the colonels full of corn.
1 Colonel Callahan sent me copies of these letters. He maintained a mimeographed service that he called the Callahan Correspondence, and whenever he wrote a letter to one acquaintance that seemed to him to be interesting — which was very often — all the other persons on his list got copies of it. The colonel had been a professional baseball player in his youth, but lived to be president of the Louisville Varnish Company and a man of substance. He was very active in all lay movements among Catholics, and was the only Catholic I ever knew who professed to be a Prohibitionist.
2 The authority for this is the Dictionary of American Biography, quoted by Horwill, p. 73. McRae (1858–1930) was one of the founders of the Scripps-McRae (now Scripps-Howard) chain of newspapers.
1 Auctioneer
Colonels Again, Oct., p. 232. Mr. Jacobs wrote from rural Missouri. In Auctioneer Colonels, American Speech, April, 1935, Dr. Louise Pound had reported the same usage prevailing in Nebraska. Mr. Jacobs reported encountering in Missouri a young man “of perhaps twenty-two or three” who “had assumed the title upon his graduation from some institution, probably calling itself a college, which taught auctioneering.”
2 Add Kurneliana, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, April 11, 1942, editorial page.
3 Some Impressions of the United States; New York, 1883.
4 Through America; London, 1882, pp. 239–40.
1 I am indebted to my brother, August Mencken, for this reference.
2 Visit to the Falls of Niagara in 1800; London, 1826, p. 74.
3 New York, 1869, p. 394.
4 From time to time there are protests against this rule, as, for example, in Question of Title, by Lee Casey, Denver Rocky Mountain News, Dec. 5, 1941: “A judge is properly a judge only so long as he occupies a bench — for that matter, only so long as he is physically sitting on the bench. The title ought to expire with the term of office.” But it never does.
1 The latest edition was “prepared under the direction of the Secretary of State by Margaret M. Hanna, chief of the Office of Coordination and Review, and Alice M. Ball, chief of the Special Documents Section, Division of Research and Publication”; Washington, 1937.
2 p. 8.
3 In the case of foreign diplomats, of course, their native titles take precedence, if they have any.
4 The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are excepted. On the envelope of a letter addressed to the Chief Justice is to be written simply The Chief Justice, without his surname. Letters to his colleagues are to be addressed Mr. Justice — But the Supreme Court Reporter, a quasi-official publication, makes an associate justice Honorable, with the word spelled out and no the before it. See Proceedings in Memory of Honorable Pierce Butler, Supreme Court Reporter, May 1, 1940, p. xix.
5 If such a functionary has “a military, naval or scholastic title” it is to be used (p. 31) instead of the Hon.
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