Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

oxsan
1930's Language

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24214

That was a really cool post, Oxsan. If you come up with any more, please post them. I have always been interested in old slang and stuff.

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

By request of TT:

President Hoover got all of the blame for the depression--at least in the language. As note:
Hoover blankets---old newspapers used to keep warm on the streets.
Hoover wagons--old inoperative cars pulled by horses.
Hoover flush--four cards of a suit in a poker hand.
Hoover hogs--jackrabbits--common on depression tables.
Hoover promise--a worthless statement. Referred to Hoover's slogan in the 1929 election "Two cars in every garage and a chicken in every pot"

"wad"--a sum of money. I got a wad meant I just got paid

calaboose--jail--from the Spanish for :"dungeon"

Cannon ball---a fast train to the hobo

"Carrying the banner"--walking around a town all night so that you decrease the chance of being arrested for "vagrancy". I think that laws against vagrancy were declared unconstitutional in the early 1940s.

"the jungle"---a rural spot where hoboes coingregated and camped to avoid arrest by city police on vagrancy charges.

"Dead between the ears"--descriptive of anyone who did not like swing music.

"ickie"--descriptive of anyone who was "dead between the ears".

"Listening in"--listening to the radio--much like current "on line"

"Lady Macbeth"--an aging actress.

"whoopee water"--booze

"Mothball"---A person who could not or would not dance. "wallflower" was also used and survived longer.

"pancake turners"--disc jockeys replaced it.

"BMOC"--Big Man On The Campus--a socially prominent student.

"Flivver"--a car--used both fondly and in disgust.

"No-No Diet"--Reference to a belief that a college or the military put liberal quantities of potassium nitrate (salt petre) in the food
to reduce the sex drive of their students or soldiers. A depression era opposite of Viallis.

Apple Annie--old ladies who sold apples on street corners or other trivial items.

"Jake leg"--a partial paralysis of the leg or legs due to drinking poor quality bootleg Jamacian rum. Strangely enough the word "Jake" alone meant "good". All is jake meant All is well.

"yegg"--a hobo or tramp that was criminally inclined.

"duster"--a sandstorm

"black blizzard"-- a huge sandstorm.

"Paper man"---a musician who was unable or unwilling to improvise.

"Corn"--unexciting Old folks music. Swing was hot--corn was not.
the adjective form --"corny" was also frequently used and lasted longer.

spanish fly (Cantharides)--a ground up powder of small south european beetles believed to make a roaring sex maniac of any woman no matter how demur if ingested.

"Rooty-toot"--Something was rooty-toot if it was extra "hot" or good. Usually reference to a piece of music.

"bit" 12 1/2 cents. Two bits equal one quarter, four bits equal one half dollar. Very common in usage until about 1970--still occasionally heard.

"hooch"---booze

"button shining"--dancing VERY close.

"alligator"--a form of address as in "See you later, alligator" which implied a certain amount of friendship and respect. Very much in use among jazz and swing musicians.

And lastly--A person entering a room of well known friends might say in imitation of the most prominent reporter of the day who always started his radio report this way--"Good morning Mr. or Mrs. North or South America and all the ships and clippers at sea--lets go to press". Walter Winchell always said this as his first words on the radio and it got to be a fad to greet your friend in this way said very fast and dramatically.-

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oxsan


Don't kick until yer spurred.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24214

I knew some of those, but most were new to me. Thanks, old fella.

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5206

Very nice. I read a lot of 20's and 30's pulp, and the slang is one of the big attractions.

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