Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States |
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Page 14
... Virginia and North Carolina , with the daisy in Eng- land . ATLANTIC STATES . States bordering on the Atlantic . ATOLE . In the Spanish portions of North America , gruel , generally of corn - meal . ATTITUDINIZE . To assume affected ...
... Virginia and North Carolina , with the daisy in Eng- land . ATLANTIC STATES . States bordering on the Atlantic . ATOLE . In the Spanish portions of North America , gruel , generally of corn - meal . ATTITUDINIZE . To assume affected ...
Page 22
... Virginia barbecue , whether of a social or a political character , is a rural entertainment which deserves more praise than censure ; and we know of none which affords the stranger a better opportunity of studying the character of the ...
... Virginia barbecue , whether of a social or a political character , is a rural entertainment which deserves more praise than censure ; and we know of none which affords the stranger a better opportunity of studying the character of the ...
Page 37
... Virginia , Salt - water Tailors . Another name is the Skip- jack . On the Jersey coast , the name Blue - fish is applied to the Weak- fish , or Squeteauge . BLUE - GRASS . The name of the grass of 4 BLO - BLU 37 TO BLOW OUT. To talk ...
... Virginia , Salt - water Tailors . Another name is the Skip- jack . On the Jersey coast , the name Blue - fish is applied to the Weak- fish , or Squeteauge . BLUE - GRASS . The name of the grass of 4 BLO - BLU 37 TO BLOW OUT. To talk ...
Page 47
... Virginia for a military body - servant . Each captain and lieutenant was entitled , and I believe is so now , to select from the rank of his company a soldier to wait on him , to carry messages , to cater for him , and to cook for him ...
... Virginia for a military body - servant . Each captain and lieutenant was entitled , and I believe is so now , to select from the rank of his company a soldier to wait on him , to carry messages , to cater for him , and to cook for him ...
Page 48
... Virginia . BREAK - BACK . A term applied to a peculiar roof , common in the country , where the rear portion is extended beyond the line of the opposite side , and at a different angle . The addition thus acquired is used as a wash ...
... Virginia . BREAK - BACK . A term applied to a peculiar roof , common in the country , where the rear portion is extended beyond the line of the opposite side , and at a different angle . The addition thus acquired is used as a wash ...
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Common terms and phrases
Abenaki ain't Allspice American Balt banks boys called colloquial common corruption Democratic denote dictionaries dollars Dow's Sermons Dutch Eastford English English language expression fish give grass ground heard horse Human Nature Indian corn Jones's Courtship land language Letter Loco-foco maize Margaret means Menhaden Mexico Mississippi Mountains N. Y. Spirit N. Y. Tribune negro never North Northern one's origin party peculiar person phrase Pickering plant political popular name prairies Pron pronunciation Providence Journal provincial in England Rhode Island river Sam Slick says sense Slick in England sometimes South South Carolina Southern Sketches Spanish real species speech Squatter tell term applied Texas thing tree United Virginia vulgar Washington Webster West West Indies Western Whig Widow Bedott Papers wild wood Worcester word writers Yankee York York Tribune
Popular passages
Page 68 - He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
Page 276 - In the discussions to which this interest has given rise, and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, the occasion has been judged proper for asserting as a principle in which the rights, and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.
Page 448 - Oh, say! can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Page 142 - The proposed Constitution, therefore, is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution, but a composition of both. In its foundation it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the government are drawn it is partly federal and partly national; in the operation of these powers it is national, not federal; in the extent of them, again, it is federal, not national; and, finally, in...
Page 276 - that the powers have an undoubted right to take a hostile attitude in regard to those states in which the overthrow of the government may operate as an example.
Page 328 - Audacious ; but that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuity ! all unawares Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops Ten thousand fathom deep...
Page 59 - American forest is wont to grow, with tall straight trees towering toward the light, but with intervals between the low oaks that were scattered profusely over the view, and with much of that air of negligence that one is apt to see in grounds, where art is made to assume the character of nature. The trees, with very few exceptions, were what is called the "burr-oak," a small variety of a very extensive genus; and the spaces between them, always irregular, and often of singular beauty, have obtained...
Page xxxi - The vulgar in America speak much better than the vulgar in Great Britain, for a very obvious reason, namely, that being much more unsettled, and moving frequently from place to place, they are not so liable to local peculiarities either in accent or phraseology.
Page 25 - Then fill to-night, with hearts as light, To loves as gay and fleeting As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim, And break on the lips while meeting.
Page 492 - The inspectors of these articles at that place, were Messrs. Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson. The. latter gentleman (invariably known as " Uncle Sam") generally superintended in person a large number of workmen, who on this occasion, were employed in overhauling the provisions purchased by the Contractor for the army. The casks were marked EA — US This work fell to the lot of a facetious fellow in the employ of the Messrs.