Page:The American Language.djvu/98

82 to skedaddle, to absquatulate and to exfluncticate. In the use of the last–named coinages fashions change. In the 40's to absquatulate was in good usage, but it has since disappeared. Most of the other inventions of the time, however, have to some extent survived, and it would be difficult to find an American of today who did not know the meaning of scalawag and rambunctious and who did not occasionally use them. A whole series of artificial American words groups itself around the prefix ker, for example, ker–flop, ker–splash, ker–thump, ker–bang, ker–plunk, ker–slam and ker–flummux. This prefix and its onomatopoeic daughters have been borrowed by the English, but Thornton and Ware agree that it is American. Its origin has not been determined. As Sayce says, "the native instinct of language breaks out wherever it has the chance, and coins words which can be traced back to no ancestors."

In the first chapter I mentioned the superior imaginativeness revealed by Americans in meeting linguistic emergencies, whereby, for example, in seeking names for new objects introduced by the building of railroads, they surpassed the English plough and crossing–plate with cow–catcher and frog. That was in the 30's. Already at that early day the two languages were so differentiated that they produced wholly distinct railroad nomenclatures. Such commonplace American terms as box–car, caboose, air–line and ticket–agent are still quite unknown in England. So are freight–car, flagman, towerman, switch, switching–engine, switch–yard, switchman, track–walker, engineer, baggage–room, baggage-check, baggage–smasher, accommodation–train, baggage–master, conductor, express–car, flat–car, hand–car, way–bill, expressman, express–office, fast–freight, wrecking–crew, jerk–water, commutation–ticket, commuter, round–trip, mileage–book, ticket–scalper, depot, limited, hot–box, iron–horse, stop–over, tie, rail, fish–plate, run, train–boy, chair–car, club–car, diner, sleeper, bumpers, mail–clerk, passenger–coach, day–coach, excursionist,