Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/57

 *tive of all work. For example, in the 'dialect' of which this word is a component part, an over-officious man is put down as 'almighty fast'; or a horse with good points as an 'almighty fine beast'; and so on throughout the whole range of superlative merit. It ranks with 'awful,' 'eternal,' 'everlasting,' 'lovely,' and a multitude of other words, orthodox enough when properly handled, but which become the purest slang when used, as is frequently the case, of things finite, and even of trifles. So employed, almighty is generally regarded as an Americanism, and is credited to our kinsmen across the sea, a view supported by De Quincey's use of the term. If this be so, there is, in truth, little at which to wonder. The 'wild,' the boundless West is no unlikely nursery for big, high-sounding words; and though one may justly condemn such depravation of our mother-tongue, the fact remains. Thus, amongst the untutored backwoodsmen and rough pioneers of the West a week is an 'eternal' time; a good officer is an almighty general; and a spell of rain is spoken of as an 'everlasting' deluge. The foregoing examples by no means exhaust the potentialities of the language; as, e.g., when people talk of a man playing almighty 'smash' with his prospects, meaning that he is hopelessly ruining his chances of success: or driving a fellow-citizen into a state of almighty 'shivers' through ill-treatment; or of a thing lasting till almighty 'crack,' i.e., for an interminable period.

/# 1824. De Quincey, Works (1871), XVI., 261. Such rubbish, such almighty nonsense (to speak transatlantice) no eye has ever beheld.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple (1863), 328. An almighty pretty French privateer lying in St. Pierre's.

1888. New York Mercury, July 21. 'This is a rum world,' said the driver, with a chuckle, as he drove up the street. 'And of all places in it New York is the rummest. And hack-drivin' is the rummest business, leadin' one into the rummest secrets. Another passenger to the "Rookery." I wonder whether the other boys gits as many customers to that place as Luke Hyatt? If they do it must be almighty full sometimes.'

In another place De Quincey speaks of a man who cannot live and cannot die as being 'in an almighty fix,' and the expression is otherwise frequently used by him. Captain Marryat likewise constantly employs it; in fact, the phrase was well 'acclimatised' on this side of the Atlantic long prior to the publication of My Novel [1853], and Prof. Barrère, in attributing its popularisation 'in a certain measure' to Lord Lytton, failed to render due credit, if any, either to De Quincey or Marryat.

Almighty Dollar, subs. (American).--The power of money; Mammon regarded as an embodiment of the worship of, and the quest for gold. This phrase is, in reality, an old friend with a new face, for Ben Jonson used the term in its modern sense when speaking of the power of money. Its modern application to dollars is traceable to Washington Irving, who made use of it in a charming little sketch, entitled A Creole Village.