AMERICANISMS.
[To THE EDITOR 01 TEE " SPZOTATOR21
Sr ,—Mr. J. M. Edmonds asks in the Spectator of March 7th if all so-called Americanisms are to be authenticated out of the English classics. Probably. In fact, there are no American- isms, or very few. Nine-tenths of the supposed Americanisms of New England have been traced back to Great Britain, and doubtless nine-tenths of the remaining tenth could be. Colonists are noted as peculiarly shy of neologisms. Even the uncouth dialect of the Southern mountains owes its un- couthness mainly to the exceeding rudeness of its speakers. The substance is old English, largely Shakespearian. These mountaineers are sometimes called Cohees, from having kept Quoth he" after it had died out among the people of the [We believe our correspondent's view to be absolutely correct. As an example of how alleged American slang is often only old English, we remember noticing in Beaumont and Fletcher the phrase, " He eats squarely,"—evidently the expression from which the so-called Americanism, " a square meal," is derived.—En. Spectator.]
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