frequent occurrence affixed to nouns answering to the English terminations ship, hood, ness; the corresponding term in Hindostance is pan; tamlepen in Gipsy is darkness; in Hindostanee tämä has the same signification. In Gipsy tattepen is summer, tatta is hot in Hindostanee; tapta has the same meaning in Sanscrit, whence the Latin tepidus, and the English tepid. In Gipsy sherroo is the head, sir is the Hindostanee word, and the Sanscrit is cîrs'ha; our English word sir, and the French Sire (the head of a family), are no doubt from this root. Our word path is from the Anglo-Saxon; but it is singular how nearly it has approached the Hindostanee panth, a road; and we have the latter word in panther, an animal that makes itself a path through the jungle. Roop is silver in Gipsy; the Hindostanee word is rupa, the Sanscrit rûpya, the Anglo-Indian rupee, a piece of silver coin. Churrie is a knife in Gipsy, chhuri in Hindostanee, tshhuri in Sanscrit; our English word to shear is not very remote. Kan is an ear in Gipsy and Hindostanee, in Sanscrit karna. Kanengro in Gipsy is a hare (literally, ear-creature). The English words stable and stall, the French étable, Italian stàlla, Spanish establia, and Latin stabulum, remind us that asthal is a standing-place, a stall, and istabal a stable in Hindostanee. Chick is mud-dirt in Gipsy and Hindostanee; and chikorna is to peck; our word chick, plural chicken, is clearly from this root. Charphar in Hindostanee signifies dexterity, cleverness; and a sharper is one gifted with those qualifications with the addition of dishonesty. Jugat in the Hindostanee means sleight of hand, and hence we arrive at the meaning of a juggler. Peeolee monishley, in Gipsy, is a widow (literally, a deserted woman); our word widow, from the Latin vidua, which is from the Sanscrit widhawâ, has exactly the same meaning. We have met with gipsy encampments in the forests of Lithuania, and on the plains of Russia; we have visited their tents on the borders of the Black Forest; we have tasted burrezimmins (snailbroth), and partaken of hartsher witcho (hedgehog) with them in the lanes of Hampshire, and drunk muttram engre (tea)-literally, sobercreature with the Romnees, and tatty parney (whiskey)—literally, fever-water-with the Roms on the heaths of Scotland; and wherever we have talked with these people we have found their language to be identical in its most important words. We could understand them, and they understood us; and our knowledge of their language was an invariable passport to their friendship and confidence. It was from our familiar intercourse with many tribes of these strange people at home and abroad, that we were led to notice the important influence which their language has exercised on our own familiar discourse, enriching it with many expressions which are vulgarly regarded as Slang; but which, when properly understood, are amongst the most nervous and suggestive in our language, having their roots deep down in the Sanscrit, the sacred language of the Brahmin, and the purest the world ever knew-regarded, indeed, by many learned men as the primeval language of the human race. Let us bring forward a few instances of slang expressions having a gipsy and Hindostanee origin, and we think we shall be able to prove that they are not necessarily low and vulgar. Chūma is the Hindostanee word for a kiss, and tschummer, pronounced exactly the same, is its gipsy equivalent. The slang term for a near and dear friend is a chum. Dhab, in Hindostanee and gipsy, signifies dexterity. Schoolboys call one who excels in any game a dab-hand. Every one knows what to have a knack of doing anything means; but many of our readers will be surprised to learn that we have this expressive word, from the Gipsies, and that its original is the Hindostanee nakhra, a trick. In Gipsy, chab is a fellow, and rumte, a dodge; and in Slang, a rum chap is a fellow full of dodges; a tap is a slight blow, and is the Gipsy abbreviation of the Hindostanee tapera, a blow. In the same language, thāpna signifies to strike. Raik, in Hindostanee and Gipsy, signifies loose in morals; we call a wild, loose fellow, a rake. Larka in the two languages signifies sport; when we see girls and boys sporting, we say they are having a lark. Phokar is dross, refuse, trash; we call a receptacle for trash a poke. The word trash appears to have come to us from the Sanscrit, a-traish, worthless. A dirty, depraved woman is a drab; in Hindostance and Gipsy, drabh is poison, and the Gipsies, with fine irony, call a doctor, drabengro, poison-being. In Hindostanee, muflis are poor, mean, miserable creatures; and there can be no doubt but that we have contracted them into muffs with the aid of our gipsy friends. The author of the Slang Dictionary defines a muff to be a soft thing that holds a lady's hand without squeezing it.' Malicious civilians derive muff from mufti, an AngloIndian name for the dress of a naval or military officer when off duty. The slang term for a mouth is a mug. The Hindostanee word is muj, and the gipsy, mooe; this reminds us of the French word moue, a mouth, and Shakespeare's line in the Tempest' occurs to us: 'Sometimes like apes that moe and chatter at me.' The slang and gipsy term for a child is a kinchin, and in Hindostance chinchinana is to squeak, to squall; a kinchin is, therefore, synonymous with a squeaker, and is not derived from the German kindlein, as is generally supposed. To come down with the dust, is the slang term to produce the money. Duster, in Gipsy and Hindostance, signifies money. Dean Swift is said to have taken for his text on the occasion of his preaching a charity sermon the verse in Proverbs, He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and look, what he layeth out it shall be paid him again;' and to have commenced his sermon with the words, My brethren, if you like the security, down with the dust.' We should scarcely have arrived at the derivation of a jam, if we had not known that in Hindostance a jamm signifies a multitude. We talk of the cut of a man's jib; we have also the words gibberish and jabber, and we know their meaning; but if we consult the standard dictionaries, we are lost in a mist as to their derivation; but our doubts are cleared up when we know that in Hindostanee jibh is the tongue, and jabha the jaw. Vast is the gipsy word for a hand, and 'avast heaving, shipmate,' is the nautical expression by which the sailor calls on his comrade to hold his hand. Katna is to cut in Hindostanee and Gipsy; and a cat-o'-nine-tails is properly a kat-o'-nine-tails, and has no reference to sleek pussy, but is an instrument of torture, with which the backs of wife-beaters are deservedly cut, but which, in the good old times, used to be held in terrorem over refractory soldiers and sailors who neglected to salute their officers when they passed them on parade or on the quarter-deck. In Gipsy and Hindostanee a bhul signifies a blunder; we call an Irish blunder a bull. Dol, in the two languages, is a bucket; a washing dolly is an instrument well known to our laundresses. In Hindostanee a-bhaga signifies unfortunate, destitute; an unfortunate woman who has fallen to the lowest depths of misery, and who presumes to answer Policeman X, when he orders her to move on, is called by him a saucy baggage.' Mushroom is a genuine gipsy word. Mush, a man; rom, wandering; and most expressive it is of the esculent fungus, here to-day and gone to-morrow. Sāmān is the Hindostanee word for provisions, and also signifies price, value; and, in Slang, he who pays the reckoning stands Sam.' The explanation of this expression in the Slang Dictionary,' is that it is an Americanism originating in the letters U. S. on the knapsacks of the United States soldiers, which letters were jocularly said to be the initials of Uncle Sam (the government who pays for all'); but this appears to be an improbable and far-fetched derivation. When we speak of a man turning rusty, we do not mean that he is iron-moulded, but that he is becoming angry. Rushto-mush in Gipsy means an angry man, and is from the Sanscrit rush, angry, manushya, man. Our slang expression nab, to seize, to catch, we have from the Gipsies; and in Hindostanee nab is the canine tooth, and nabh signifies rapine, plunder. To bag off is, in Slang, to run away, and is from the Hindostanee bhagor, flight. When we wish to express slangily that we do not approve of anything, or consider it unfashionable, we say it is not the cheese; but this has no reference to the product of the dairies of Stilton or Cheshire, but merely means that it is not exactly the thing. Chiz in Hindostanee means thing. When we know that in Hindostance dhillar signifies lazy, we have arrived pretty nearly at an explanation of dilly-dally. Patthar, a stone, may help us to the signification of pitter-patter. Pad, a step, renders a footpad no longer an enigma to us. Kubh, deformity, may explain why we speak of an ugly cub. Daf, in Hindostanee, signifies repulsion; and sailors in the Eastern seas call light adverse breezes daffling winds. Ghumana, to beguile, is not improbably the original of gammon; and the udder of a cow may be from udharna, to discharge. Kutla, thin slices, may fairly claim to have originated cutlets. Dabila is a paddle, an instrument which should only be used in sight of shore, and may remind us, when we dabble' in the Funds, that caution is necessary to avoid getting out of our depth. When we know that in Hindostanee sil signifies a stone, we are disposed to ask whether window-sills came to us originally from the East. Adisht, in Hindostanee, signifies misfortune, fate; and in Slang we say of a man who is utterly ruined that he is dished. The gipsy word tud, milk, is from the Hindostanee dudh, which is from the Sanscrit dughda; from which, no doubt, we have dug, the teat of an animal which yields milk. Whence comes our word donkey, if not from the gipsy donkee, and the Hindostanee donki, both signifying bellows, and which has no doubt been applied as a soubriquet to the ass, from the manner in which it exerts its voice. What is the derivation of hullaballoo? It is in vain to refer to Johnson or Webster; but ask the Rommaney racklee (gipsy maiden). She will tell you that in her language hullar is an uproar, ballu, of pigs; and both are genuine Hindostanee words. We all know that bosh signifies nonsense; but whence derived? Again we must apply to the Rommaneys, and they tell us that bosh signifies a fiddle in their language, and that, as applied to foolish expressions, it is synonymous with fiddlededee. When we know that in Hindostanee mal is a prizefighter, we arrive at the meaning of mauleys, fists, and mauling, beating. The child of a mother in humble life speaks of its mother's breast as titty; and tītī is the gipsy and Hindostanee word for the breast of a woman. The Gipsy word for a nose is nak, and the Hindostanee is the same; in Sanscrit it is nâsika; Latin, nasus; German, nase. Māt in Hindostanee means confounded, undone; our term checkmate, in chess, is from sheikmat, and signifies the sheik, or king, confounded. In Hindostanee chhir is milk; and to churn evidently comes from cherna, to stir up. Our word to cringe (to bend) may be from the Sanscrit çringa, a horn. In Hindostance charkh is a hyæna. We call the hyæna of the sea a shark. It is evident, from some of the instances which we have adduced of slang terms derived from Oriental sources, that we have occasionally been indebted to the Anglo-Indian nabob, the Hindostance nurse, and the Lascar sailor, for contributions to the repertory of Slang; yet we believe these to be insignificant compared with the wealth of words which we have borrowed from the Rommaney Tschib. It has been our object to show that there is a more important Gipsy and Hindostanee element in our language than has generally been supposed; and we trust that the instances which we have adduced of forcible expressions, having the genuine ring of a pure Indian origin about them, may suffice to silence the revilers of Slang who despise it as low and vulgar through ignorance of its true meaning and origin. Little did the Hon. Ben. Disraeli suspect when he denounced the use, in the House of Commons, of slang terms, that he was holding up to contempt derivatives from a language more ancient than the Hebrew, and infinitely more pure; a language which was the medium of thought for philosophers and sages long before the hon. gentleman's great progenitor uttered his barbarous shibboleths on the plains of Mamre. J. C. M. H. JOHN SCOTT, DIED OCTOBER 4, 1871. 'And thus he bore without abuse The grand old name of gentleman, YE worshippers of Worth, who humbly kneel The dust and ashes of a regal line; Who love to trace, in dim cathedral's gloom, TENNYSON. The storied urn' that marks a statesman's grave, Or bend before the banner-shaded tomb Whose marble shrouds the relics of the brave: Glows in the steadfast beams of Honour's sun. No wail may rise, above the grave of Scott Spontaneous falls the universal tear, And loving memories consecrate the spot. As Envy spreads her myriad toils around, His every action as the daylight clear, Among his kind, without reproach or fear.' To no refined distinctions he confest ; |