Thursday, March 24: Femme Fatale
WHAT YOU SAY?
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
Today’s article continues from last Thursday’s with more slang words that interest our readers to a certain time period within our stories. Next Thursday, I’ll complete the trilogy.
From the Roaring ’20’s:
All wet — an idea or person as not one well received
Applesauce — an expletive when something is not desired
Balled up — confused
Bank’s closed — no kissing now
Bee’s knees — outstanding
Beef — problem or complaint
Bell Bottom — sailor
Bible Belt — are in the Midwest where Fundamentalist religion reigns
Bull — a policeman
Caper — criminal act
Check — kiss me later
Copacetic — everything’s all right
Drugstore Cowboy guy hanging out on a corner trying to pick up girls
Fall guy — a scapegoat victim
Fire extinguisher chaperone
Gams — a woman’s legs
Glad rags — best clothes
Handcuff — engagement ring
Hooch — bootleg liquor
It — sex appeal
Jack — money
Juice Joint — speakeasy
Kisser — mouth
Moll — a gangster’s girlfriend
Neck — kissing passionately
On the lam — running from the law
Owl — person who’s out late
Pinch — to arrest
Razz — to make fun of
Sheba — woman with sex appeal
Spiffy — elegant appearance
Tin Pan Alley — music industry between 48th & 52nd Streets in New York City
Tomato — a female
Torpedo — a hired gun
From the Dirty ’30’s
Broad — a woman
Bean shooter — a gun
Bleed — to blackmail
Brodie — a mistake
Butter and egg man the man with the bankroll
Cabbage — money
Cadillac — ounce packet of cocaine or heroin
Canary — female singer
Cave — house
Chicago overcoat coffin
Chopper — Thompson submachine gun
Cinder dick — railroad detective
Copper — policeman
Drilling — shooting with a gun
Face — a Caucasian
G-man — federal agent (coined by Machine Gun Kelly)
Hardboiled — tough guy
Low down — all the info
Meat wagon — ambulance
Packing heat — carrying a gun
Sourdough — counterfeit money
Stool Pigeon — informant to the police
Taking the fall — taking responsibility for a crime someone else committed
The kiss off — final goodbye
From the 1940’s
Big cheese — boss
Bump off — to murder
Hairy — out-dated
Hang up — to quit something
Heave-ho — throwing out physically
Heebie-jeebies — the jitters
Hipster — a member of the counterculture of the 1940’s
Honcho — the boss
Hots — desire for someone
In the know — person who is up-to-date on everything
Kick — enjoyment
Line — insincere flattery
Moolah — money
Nerve — boldness
Nuts — insane
Pushover — easily convinced person
Scram — leave quickly
Swell — wonderful
Wise guy — smart aleck
Whoopee — to have a good time
From the Nifty ’50’s
Ain’t that a bite — that’s too bad
Ankle-biter — child
Apple butter — smooth talk
Backseat bingo — kissing in a car
Big Daddy — older person
Binoculars — eye glasses
Blast — a good time
Bundie — boy in need of a haircut
Cat — a hip person
Clanked — rejected
Cop a breeze — to leave
DDT — Drop Dead Twice
Due backs — pack of cigarettes
Fade out — to disappear
Frail — without money
Frosted — angry
Germ — pest
Handle — your name
Grody — sloppy
Heat — the police
Ice it — forget it
Jacketed — going steady
Keeper — parents
Lighting up the tilt sign — not telling the truth
Night shift — slumber party
Off — to steal
Pad — home
Roust — under arrest
Scooch — a friend
Shuckster — a liar
Split — to leave
The Man — police
Tube steak — a hotdog
Warden — a teacher
Way out — ground-breaking
Weed — a cigarette
Yoot — a youngster
Zorros — the jitters
A fun column, Deborah, thank you!
It reminds me of the 1927 silent movie starring Clara Bow. It’s the only film featuring her that I’ve seen so far, but she was really something.
Does anybody know the origin of the screaming meemies? I first read it in one of Ross MacDonald’s Archer novels and it quite impressed me.
I adore Clara Bow! I’m curious about the screaming meemies, too. AND for a long time, I’ve been trying to find where the term “Jumping Jehosephat” comes from — did it originate with the Superman comics or from a king of old in the Bible? Anyone know?
I loved seeing ‘copacetic’ on the list. I’ve always liked it!! Such a fun word!! I bet you had a blast researching all these!! :]]
The list is “Verrry interesting,” (said with a German accent from the 70s’ TV show Laugh-in.)
I know I’ll probably be corrected, and I’m sure you found this anyway, but this is what I found:
On consulting the Oxford English Dictionary and the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it seems clear that the name of the king of Judah (which also occurs in several other spellings, most commonly Jehosaphat) was used in the United States around the middle of the nineteenth century as a mild oath, a euphemism for Jehovah or Jesus. The phrase Jumping Jehoshaphat is first recorded from Mayne Reid’s Headless Horseman of 1866, but is probably older. It seems to have been in the tradition of exotic imprecations that Americans of that period were so fond of, with the repeated initial sound greatly helping its acceptance.
Anyway, great article….again!! 🙂
Hamilton:
A quick glance online produced the following non-dictionary explanation from a site called “Take our word for it”:
“This is apparently partly onomatopoeic, and partly rhyming in origin. The term, often spelled “screaming meemies”, is first recorded in 1927 with the meaning “drunkenness”, but a couple of sources suggest that it dates from World War I, when it referred to a certain kind of German artillery shells that made a screaming sound which approximated “meem” or “meemie”.
Later, soldiers who experienced shell shock from hearing too many of those artillery shells were said to have the “screaming meemies”, and then one can see how that evolved to refer to drunkenness.
Later, it became synonymous with “heebie jeebies”, or “delirium tremens”, and now we hear it used with several different meanings, including “the willies” or “the creeps”, as in “Fingernails on a chalkboard give me the screaming meemies”.
During World War II the term was resurrected in military parlance to refer to a specific German rocket, the “nebel-werfer”, and then to many other enemy rockets. Another term used for those rockets is said to have been “Moaning Minnies.””
Various dictionary definitions are found here: http://www.memidex.com/screaming-meemies
You guys are great! I always learn something from you! Thanks!
Deborah, these are excellent articles.
Frail — I’d heard of ‘frail’ used much earlier in the 20th century (1920s?) to mean a young single woman or girlfriend. “Who’s your frail?”
Grody — I thought this was originally British from ‘grotesque’, grotty.
alisa, I’m sure you deserve to be. (grin)
Thanks, A Broad! That’s very informative.
Now I wonder whether “meemie” is related to the German female given name “Mimi” (which I think is short for Wilhelmine, Hermine and/or Margarete).
Incidentally, and really not very related to the point, or any point, at all, my grandmother used to refer to German police vans by the name Die grüne Minna (i.e. the green Minna), in obvious allusion to their color.
Reminds me of the entries in Writer’s Digest Books’ “Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition through World War II” and others of the series. Fun column, and yes, we still use some of these terms!