American Slang
Sta.—Many will be amused by Mr. H. A. C. Evans's praiseworthy and prizeworthy rendering of current and obsolescent American' slang in Competition No. 92. But, in the interests, of underworld phikilogy, and of slang as "the illegitimate sister of poetry," it may be pointed out that " caboose " does not primarily mean "gaol": it is very rarely used in that sense. Perhaps Mr. Evans has confused it with "calaboose," from Spanish " calabosa " (dungeon). This in the Southern and Western States is a local synonym for "prison." "Caboose," on American rail- roads, is the car used on' freight and construction trains for workmen
or train-crew.- entpkved, if is the term for the cook's galley. (Perhaps the Caracter quoted by Mr. Evans had been " railroaded " or "taken for a ride "!) "Kisser" is English and Migration rather than American slang. " Hoodlums" is not what Mr. D. R. Peddy, the com- petition-setter, calls " Brooklynesque "; the term originated in San
Francisco.—Yours faithfully, GUY IMES. 7A Drayton Court, Drayton Gardens, S.W.10.
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