THE WORD "CUSS."
LTO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOII.1
Sta,--It seems to me your correspondent from Colorado Springs is himself in error in stating that the word "cuss," when em- ployed in the sense of a "rough cuss" or a "mean cuss," is a corruption of the word "curse." There is certainly a word "cuss" which is derived from "curse," as be points out, but it is an entirely different word, and is simply a slang synonym for its original, " curse ;" whereas, "cuss," used in the above sense, seems, without doubt, to be a curtailment of "customer," as stated by the reviewer of " Skeat's Dictionary." For my part, and I think most A mericans will agree with me, I never under- stood it as in any way connected with the word "curse." During several years of life beyond the Mississippi, as well as in other parts of America, I have often heard it used, but always, it appears to me, as a synonym for "customer," for a man was as likely to say a "rough customer," as a "rough cuss."—I am,
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