Book Review: Grant Barrett's Hatchet Jobs & Hardball

1 November 2004

Grant Barrett’s Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang is the most recent of Oxford University Press’s collection of specialty lexicons. OUP is engaged in publishing a number of books that take advantage of its tremendous research files on the English language. Hatchet Jobs and Hardball takes on the subject of terms associated with American politics.

Until the publication of Barrett’s volume, the best collection of American political slang terms was William Safire’s New Political Dictionary (Random House, 1993). Barrett’s book rivals Safire’s for utility as a reference. But the two books are not simply rivals, but rather complementary of each other.
Hatchet Jobs starts off with a rather uninteresting introduction by political operatives James Carville and Mary Matalin. The introduction is followed by a series of short essays on various topics in political lexicography. We have one on terms associated with electronic voting, one on the history of the phrase inside baseball, one on the suffix –gate, etc. But then we come to the heart of the book, the dictionary itself, over 600 terms arranged alphabetically from actorvist (a politically involved actor, 1995) to zoo plane (a plane filled with journalists that follows a politician’s plane during a campaign, coined in 1973 by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson).

What distinguishes Barrett’s dictionary from other collections of political slang, including Safire’s, is that Hatchet Jobs is a historical dictionary, including usage citations for each of the terms. We find out, for example, that the term compassionate conservative did not originate with George W. Bush in 2000. Instead, the term was first used on 19 August 1962 in reference to House Speaker Sam Rayburn in the New York Times, “Rayburn was in action a compassionate Conservative.” In 1981, the New York Times records Senator Orrin Hatch calling himself one, “I’m a conservative, and proud of it, but I’m a compassionate conservative.” It is the inclusion of the usage citations like these that makes Barrett’s book particularly valuable.

Barrett’s book has two major limitations. The first is that it largely addresses only political slang and the more obscure jargon terms. Standard terms, like electoral college, election, and poll are not included. This is understandable; Barrett had to limit his scope in some fashion and with over 600 terms Hatchet Jobs hardly skimps on the terms it includes, but the exclusion of standard terms limits its utility.

The second is that Hatchet Jobs is very much a straightforward dictionary. Beyond the definition, usage citations, and the occasional etymological note it does not include much background information on the terms. Many of the terms have fascinating historical notes and asides that are omitted or only briefly alluded to. It is in this respect that the book is complementary to a volume like Safire’s New Political Dictionary. Safire’s book includes many of these historical tidbits, but is lacking in that it does not include usage citations. The combination of the two books makes a powerful reference.

Hatchet Jobs turns up some surprising gems. The term thought police, for example, was not coined by George Orwell in his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Rather Barrett has found a 1944 citation from a newspaper in Zanesville, Ohio. The term regime change, today so often associated with Iraq, was first used in 1956 in reference to changes proposed to the Communist regime in Poland. And the term family values, popularized in the 1992 presidential campaign, was actually coined in 1978.

And if you’re wondering about the title, a hatchet job is a character assassination (1940) and hardball is aggressive, ruthless competition (1972).

Hatchet Jobs and Hardball is an invaluable addition to the bookshelves of anyone interested in politics or the political lexicon.

Hardcover; 301 pages; Oxford University Press; August 2004; $25.00.

Word of the Month: Election

1 November 2004

Tuesday, 2 November is election day in the United States. On that day we select the next president and vice-president (or more accurately select the people who will select them), one-third of the US Senate, all of the House of Representatives, and numerous state and local officials. So, our word of the month is election, n., the selection of a person to fill an office, usually by votes of members of a particular body, ca. 1270, from the Old French and ultimately from the Latin electionem.

The words that follow are all related to elections:

527 organization, n., a political organization that is not affiliated with a party or specific candidate, 1999; from Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code which governs the taxes those organizations do or do not pay.

advance man, n., a person sent ahead of a candidate to prepare a location for a speech or other campaign event, esp. to ensure that there is a good crowd at the event, 1879. Earlier advance agent.

attack ad, n., a political advertisement that criticizes an opponent, 1976.

ballot, n., a piece of paper or other object that designates a voter’s selections in an election, 1549; from the Italian ballotta, or little ball, from round balls that were used to cast votes in Venetian elections.

barnstormer, n., a politician who makes a campaign tour with many brief stops, esp. in rural areas, hence the verb to barnstorm; from an earlier sense meaning a traveling theatrical performer; 1859 in the theatrical sense, 1884 in the political.

battleground state, n., a state where either candidate can expect to win in a US presidential election, 1992.

beltway, n., the highway (Interstate 495) that circles Washington, DC. Literal use to refer to the road dates to 1956. Metaphorically used to separate the political class from the rest of America, outside the beltway and inside the beltway, starting in 1975.

big tent, n., a political party or organization that encompasses a broad spectrum of views, 1955.

bleeding heart, n., one who is sympathetic to the poor and otherwise disadvantaged, also bleeding-heart liberal, 1938.

blue dog Democrat, n., a conservative, Southern Democrat, 1995; from the paintings of Cajun artist George Rodrigue and influenced by yellow-dog Democrat.

bounce, n., a sudden increase in support for a candidate after an event, 1980; also bump.

by-election, n., a British term for an election to fill a vacant parliamentary seat, 1880. In US parlance, a special election.

carpetbagger, n., a politician who moves into a new state or district in an attempt to be elected from that district, 1868; orig. Northern politicians who moved south during Reconstruction after the Civil War, after the luggage stereotypically carried by them.

cemetery vote, n., those who are deceased but maintained on the voting rolls and for whom votes are recorded on election day, 1891.

compassionate conservative, n., a politician who combines liberal and conservative policies, a centrist, 1962. In the 2000 election, George W. Bush declared himself a compassionate conservative, but he was far from the first to use the term.

dark horse, n., a candidate who receives the nomination as a compromise because the nominating convention cannot agree on the leading candidates, a long-shot candidate; orig. British horse-racing slang for a horse about which little is known, 1831; applied to US politics by 1844.

dirty trick, n., an under-handed ploy used to subvert an opponent’s campaign; the general sense of the term dates to 1674; first applied in the context of a political campaign in 1870; modern use is largely from the Watergate era and stems from the use of dirty tricks to refer to clandestine operations by the CIA in the 1960s.

election, n., the selection of a person to fill an office, ca.1270, from the Old French and ultimately the Latin electionem.

electoral college, n., a body charged with selecting a person to fill an office. College has been used in this sense since 1541. The specific term electoral college dates to at least 1691. In modern use, the term is usually used to describe the body of electors who select the President of the United States, although the term electoral college does not appear in either the Constitution or the Federalist Papers. As the 2000 election demonstrated, the president is not selected by popular vote. (Al Gore had more votes than George W. Bush.) Instead, each state and the District of Columbia selects a number of electors, equal to the number of representatives and senators from that state, who in turn select the president.

faithless elector, n., a member of the electoral college who does not vote for the candidate that he or she had pledged to vote for, 1967. There have been cases of this occurring in US history—the first was in 1796 when a Federalist elector from Pennsylvania voted for Thomas Jefferson rather than John Adams as he had pledged. The last was in 1976 when one of Gerald Ford’s electors cast his vote for Ronald Reagan—although in 1988 a West Virginia Democratic elector voted for Lloyd Bentsen, the vice presidential candidate, for president and for Michael Dukakis, the presidential candidate, for vice president. A faithless elector has never altered the final outcome of the election.

family values, n., a term denoting a set of conservative religious and social beliefs that represent and strengthen the American family. The term family values dates to 1966 and has been in political use since 1976 when the term appeared in the Republican party platform.

fat cat, n., a wealthy contributor to a political campaign, 1925.

favorite son, n., a national politician popular with voters from his home state or region, esp. one who uses that popularity to garner political favors or a place on the ticket as a vice presidential candidate, 1852.

gerrymander, n. & v., a method of defining a district so that it unfairly favors one political party over another, to define a district in this way, 1812; after Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts who led the 1812 redistricting effort in that state to favor the Democrats over the Federalists. The term was coined by newspaper editor Benjamin Russell, who when painter and sometime political cartoonist Gilbert Stuart pointed out that the map of one of Gerry’s new districts resembled a salamander, labeled it a gerrymander.

hard money, n., contributions to a specific candidate’s campaign as opposed to contributions to a party or other political organization, 1984; orig. a term used by unions to distinguish contributions of individual members to campaigns from funds in their general treasury which could not be used for specific campaigns, 1972; cf. soft money.

hatchet job, n., an instance of character assassination or malicious criticism, 1940.

hatchet man, n., a campaign worker who engages in character assassination or malicious criticism on behalf of his candidate, 1898.

horse-race journalism, n., news coverage that focuses on polling and campaign tactics rather than on the issues, 1986.

initiative, n., an act of legislation originating by petition of citizens and enacted via popular vote, bypassing the parliamentary process, 1889; cf. referendum.

inside baseball, n., intricate and highly technical knowledge of a subject, esp. politics or (of course) baseball; applied to baseball from 1908, politics from 1952.

limousine liberal, n., a wealthy liberal, 1969.

lobby, v., to advocate to legislators on behalf of a third party, 1837; from the practice of advocates to frequent the lobbies of the legislative chambers in the US Capitol. Hence lobbyist, 1863.

Mercuri method, n., a system of electronic voting where the voter examines the correctness of the electronic ballot, for example by comparing it to a printed copy, before the vote is finally cast, 2002. From Rebecca Mercuri, a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, who proposed it.

mid-term, n., an election where congressional seats are contested, but the presidency is not at stake, 1933; cf. off-year.

NASCAR dad, n., a white, working class father, a demographic sought after by both parties, 2002; from the popularity of automobile racing among this demographic; cf. soccer mom.

NOTA, n., none of the above, a ballot choice in some states, 1980.

October surprise, n., news in the month before the election that can affect the outcome of the election in November, esp. news that is engineered by the incumbent candidate, 1980; the original October surprise, which did not come to pass, was the fear in the Reagan campaign that President Carter would announce the release of the hostages in Iran in the days before the election.

off-year, n., an election where no major offices are contested, 1870; cf. mid-term.

on message, adj., adhering to a pre-determined campaign strategy or policy, 1992.

overvote, v. & n., to cast a ballot for more than one candidate for a single office, a ballot so marked; 1970; also undervote, to fail to vote for any candidate for a particular office or a ballot so marked.

permanent campaign, n., the continuous pursuit of funds and political support from the populace even after having been elected to office, 1977.

photo op, n., an event staged to allow a politician to be photographed by the press with certain people or engaged in an activity, 1982; short for photo opportunity, 1974.

plebiscite, n., a vote by the populace to decide a public issue or to express non-binding political sentiment, esp. a vote to ratify an act of the legislature or a constitutional amendment, 1860; from the French, ultimately from the Latin plebiscitum.

poll, n., the counting of voters in an election, 1635; the time and place of an election, 1832; a survey taken to estimate public opinion on a particular topic or upcoming election, 1902. From the Middle English polle, meaning head, ca. 1290. Cognates are found in numerous Germanic languages.

pork barrel, n., a government appropriation that benefits a local constituency, 1873; probably from the pre-Civil War practice of distributing pork in barrels to slaves.

Potomac fever, n., an interest in national elective politics, 1944; from the Potomac River that runs through Washington, D.C.

presidential fever, n., a desire to become president, 1857. One-time presidential candidate and congressman Mo Udall once commented, “the only cure for presidential fever is formaldehyde.”

press the flesh, v., to shake hands, to greet the public, 1918.

primary, primary election, n., an election that makes a preliminary selection of candidates for office, 1792; so called because it is the first of a series of elections in the process of filling an office.

pundit, n., an expert who makes public pronouncements on a subject, a commentator, 1816 in general use, 1960 in the specific political sense; from the Hindi pandit, or learned man.

push poll, n., a method of influencing the electorate by posing biased questions in the guise of an opinion survey, 1994.

rapid response, adj., providing fast rebuttals and reactions to the actions and statements of one’s opponent, 1988.

recall, n., the removal of an elected official via petition and vote, 1902.

red state/blue state, n., a red state is a state whose electoral votes went to George W. Bush in 2000; a blue state is one that went to Al Gore in that election. By extension, red state represents conservative, working class, and evangelical Christian and blue state represents liberal and intellectual. These usages date to 2000 and are so-called because of the colored maps used by the television networks to show the election results. Prior to 2000, the terms and colors were used to designate states that went for one candidate or another, but there was no consistency in which colors were used for which party.

referendum, n., a public question that is decided by the voters, esp. to ratify an action of the legislature, 1847.

rope line, n., rope barriers used to separate a politician from the crowd at an event, by extension the crowd itself, 1980; to work the rope line is to walk along the rope line, greeting the public and shaking hands.

security mom, n., middle-class mother who is primarily concerned with the safety of her children in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, 2003; cf. soccer mom.

soccer mom, n., a middle-class mother who is involved in her children’s after-school activities, a desirable demographic because they are likely to vote; 1982, in political use since 1996.

soft money, n., contributions to a party or other political organization that can only be used for broad purposes, such as providing information about issues or registering voters, but not to support specific candidates, 1984; orig. a term used by unions to distinguish funds in their general treasury contributions which could not be used for specific campaigns from contributions individual members to campaigns, 1972; cf. hard money.

sound bite, n., a brief excerpt from a speech, a pithy line that is intended to be picked up and played on news broadcasts, 1976.

special interests, n.pl., groups that use their collective power to gain advantage from the political process through lobbying, organizing voters, or funding, 1889.

spin doctor, n., an expert in spinning, 1984.

spin, n. & v., a biased interpretation of an event or candidate intended to influence voters, to engage in such interpretations; 1977 for the noun, 1988 for the verb.

stemwinder, n., a notable or rousing speech or event, 1892; from the metaphor for a stemwinding watch, which was cutting-edge technology in the 19th century. Often misused to mean a boring speech or event, one where people wind their watches out of boredom.

stump speech, n., a political speech in an informal setting on the campaign trail, e.g., standing on a tree stump addressing a small crowd, a candidate’s standard campaign speech, 1834; hence the verb to stump, meaning to engage in electioneering, 1838.

Super Tuesday, n., an election day when many states hold their primaries, the exact day and participating states varies from year to year, 1976.

swing voter, n., a voter who does not necessarily vote for a particular party, a voter who can be convinced to vote for either candidate, 1958.

timber, n., characteristics that make one suitable for a particular office, esp. presidential timber, 1854; from the metaphor of woodworking.

town hall, adj., characteristic of a meeting between a politician and the voters, an opportunity for the public to question a candidate, 1977; from the direct democracy of public meetings in a New England town hall.

truth squad, n. & v., a group that verifies the veracity of statements made by a politician, to engage in such activity, 1952.

war chest, n., campaign funds, 1897.

water’s edge, n., a boundary, both literal and figurative, between domestic and foreign policy, the latter of which should not be the subject of partisan politics, 1939; from the phrase “politics stops at the water’s edge.”

wedge issue, n., a matter which divides a political party or group, 1986; hence wedge politics, n., electioneering to divide and polarize the opposition, 1991.

whistle-stop, adj., characteristic of a campaign tour of many stops in small towns, traditionally, but not necessarily, taken by train, 1948; the original and most famous whistle-stop campaign was Truman’s in 1948.

yellow dog Democrat, n., a Democrat loyalist, 1911; from the idea that loyalists would vote for yellow dogs or curs if nominated.

Bestsellers

2 October 2004

As I write this on 2 October, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is the bestselling fiction book in America according to New York Times Bestseller List. This is the first week King’s new novel has been on the list, entering it at number one. The number one non-fiction book also entered the list at the top position this week, America (The Book) by Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.1 The New York Times also maintains separate lists for advice/self-help books, for children’s books, and for paperbacks.

The New York Times Bestseller List is probably the best known and most influential of numerous such lists. A place on the list is a guarantee of even greater sales and scads of profit. But how does the Times compile the list? Besides the questionable placement of America (The Book) on the non-fiction list, is the list accurate? Does it actually reflect which books are truly the best sellers?

A quick check of the Amazon.com sales rankings and the Publishers Weekly bestseller lists shows some discrepancies. King’s book is number eight on the Amazon list (Amazon does not divide its list into categories). There is one fiction book that is ahead of The Dark Tower, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code which is in seventh place on Amazon and in third on the NYT fiction list. Trace, by Patricia Cornwall, which is number two on the NYT list is twelfth on Amazon’s with two other adult fiction books ahead of it. The Publishers Weekly top five fiction books are the same as those on the NYT list, except numbers four and five are reversed in order. Stewart’s America (The Book) is number two at Amazon and the highest-ranking non-fiction book on the online list. So the two lists agree on that score. Publishers Weekly and the NYT agree on the top sellers in this category.

Further discrepancies can be found in the advice/self-help category. The NYT lists Phil McGraw’s (TV’s “Dr. Phil”) Family First as number one. But it is number three on Amazon—behind He’s Just Not That Into You, by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, which is Amazon’s bestselling book at the moment, but only number two on the NYT advice list. Again, Publishers Weekly and the NYT agree here as well. One significant outlier is the Guinness Book of World Records 2005. The NYT lists this as number five on the advice list. Not only is the categorization odd, but USA Today lists it as number 138 and Amazon has it as number 365.

The biggest difference is on the children’s list. On Amazon, the bestselling children’s book is Lemony Snicket’s The Grim Grotto—number eight on the Amazon list. It does not appear on the NYT list at all—but this is because it was just published this week. I suspect that next week’s list will include it. Publishers Weekly compiles its children’s book list on a monthly basis, so the current lists are not comparable. (The NYT children’s list was created in 2001 because of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which was driving all the “adult” books off the list. Never mind that a large percentage, if not a majority, of Harry Potter readers are adults.)

So the three lists, while not exactly the same, are largely in agreement. The discrepancies are accountable to slightly different methodologies and different survey dates—the Amazon list, for example, is adjusted hourly and while the NYT and Publishers Weekly are weekly lists, they appear on different days. So, how do these groups compile the lists? On what are the rankings based? All three are based on surveys of booksellers (Amazon “surveys” itself). The exact methodology and which bookstores are surveyed are closely guarded secrets.

The New York Times sends a weekly survey out to some 4,000 booksellers across the United States. The survey form lists the books that the NYT expects will be the week’s bestsellers. Booksellers can add titles to the list, but it is not known how many actually do. This gives the edge to books that have large marketing budgets—they will almost certainly be listed on the survey and will be reported upon. It is very possible for a book to sell extremely well and never appear on the NYT list.

The major problem with this methodology is that it ignores several important outlets for sales. Online resellers are typically excluded. Book clubs, a major source of sales for publishers, are also left out. Specialty booksellers are also underrepresented. This is apparent in the category of Christian books. Christian books are about a quarter of all book sales in the US and are routinely ignored by the bestseller lists. The academic market is similarly ignored. While most academic books will never be bestsellers, textbooks are competitive with commercial markets in total sales. Publishers Weekly employs a similar methodology, surveying some 3,000 stores.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s list is often relied on by the publishing industry to identify these sleeper books. The Chronicle samples some 50 Bay Area bookstores. While not national in scope, it includes a high percentage of independent booksellers and captures many up-and-coming books which are chiefly marketed by word-of-mouth. Snow Falling on Cedars, Cold Mountain, and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood all appeared on the Chronicle’s list months before they made it onto the NYT list.

The odd-man out is the USA Today’s bestseller list. That paper surveys some 3,000 booksellers, but relies solely on actual sales figures. There is no statistical sampling or ranking by each bookseller. Furthermore, it lists the top 150 sellers—a deeper list than the others and it does not divide the list into categories. It mixes fiction, non-fiction, hardcover, paperback, children’s, advice, etc. all together. Because of this eclectic mix and the deep list, often classics make it onto the list. This week Animal Farm (145) and The Great Gatsby (146) make it into the top 150—buoyed no doubt by students buying them for their fall classes. The Catcher in the Rye is number 95; To Kill a Mockingbird is 68. Fahrenheit 451 comes in at an even 100. But before you become too encouraged by the discernment of the American reading public, note that How To Make Love Like A Porn Star, by Jenna Jameson, is at 88, down from 66 last week.

One firm, the Dutch market research firm VNU, runs a service called BookScan, that electronically records point-of-sale data on book sales from major chains, some independents, and from discount and department stores. While this is probably the most accurate list of what is actually sold, the data is not available to the public—unless you have $75,000 to spend for an annual subscription.

But perhaps the most interesting of the bestseller lists is Amazon’s. The Amazon sales rankings only include sales by the giant internet bookseller, but it has, by many orders of magnitude, the deepest list, rank-ordering over two million different titles. It is based on actual sales figures, but the rankings are adjusted to take into account sales trends. For example, a book that is currently selling 100 copies this week, sold 50 last week, and 10 the week before will be ranked higher than a book that consistently sells 100 copies each week. If the ranking were simply based on total lifetime sales, the list would quickly become stagnant with books like The Bible, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and To Kill a Mockingbird topping the list. The exact algorithms are not published, but one can make some reasonable deductions about how they work. This allows the general public to track the progress of mid-list and back-list titles that will never reach the bestseller lists of the NYT or Publishers Weekly.

The chief caveat with the Amazon rankings are that these are results from one bookseller, and an online one at that. As such, its sales figures can be skewed. Books sold primarily through other outlets, such as university bookstores or at self-help seminars are underrepresented. (This is true for almost all the bestseller lists.) Books marketed to those in demographics that typically do not have online access will similarly be underrepresented in the rankings. And books that are chiefly impulse buys will typically be absent entirely.

The Amazon ranking is relative to all the other books in the online giant’s catalog. The top 10,000 rankings are re-computed every hour. The rankings of the top 10,000 to 100,000 are re-computed once a day. Rankings over 100,000 are re-computed once a week. But what do the rankings mean in terms of actual sales? The top ten Amazon books sell over 100 copies a day—that’s just at Amazon and doesn’t count sales through other booksellers. Amazon accounts for about 5% of all book sales in the US, so that means a top ten Amazon seller is probably selling around two thousand copies a day total via all outlets—a very lucrative book.

Those books ranked 11 through 100 sell around 30 copies a day, while those ranked 101 through 1000 sell about ten. Those ranked through 10,000 sell about two copies a day, and those ranked through 100,000 sell about a copy each week.

Below 100,000 the rankings are extremely fluid. The sales of one or two copies can significantly affect a book’s ranking, sometimes jumping several hundred thousand places from week to week. Comparisons of books at these rankings are not terribly meaningful.

1 For those readers in the US, I encourage you to check out The Daily Show on Comedy Central. It is a parody of a news broadcast (self-described as “fake news”) that has some of the wittiest and most trenchant social and political commentary on American television. For those overseas, a weekly version can also be seen on CNN International.

Book Review: Rosemarie Ostler's Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers

1 October 2004

Rosemarie Ostler’s Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers: A Decade-By-Decade Guide to the Vanishing Vocabulary of the Twentieth Century has been sitting on my shelf unread for many months. Purchased long ago with the intent to review it here, I just never got around to it. When I finally pulled it off the shelf I was delighted in what I found. This is a real gem of word books.

Ostler focuses on obsolescent and obsolete words and phrases, terms that are associated with a particular era. It is a compendium of American culture seen through the vocabulary of the times. Each chapter of Dewdroppers deals with a decade of the 20th century and the words and phrases that are associated with that period.

The terms in Dewdroppers weren’t all coined in the decade they are associated with and not all of them have disappeared from the language. But all of them are inexorably associated with their particular era. Reading the book is a nostalgic experience and one is bound to turn up nuggets of which one is unaware.

Ostler’s research is excellent. While a few of her etymological explanations are missing some important details (e.g., she omits the Monty Python connection in the origin of spam) there are no serious factual flaws in the book. Ostler provides no notes for the individual terms, but she does include the sources used for each chapter in endnotes.

What follows is a selection, by decade, of a few of the terms found in Dewdroppers:

1900-1919
In the early decades of the 20th century one could listen to ragtime on the Victrola, perhaps while reading a dime novel or looking at pictures in the rotogravure section of the newspaper. Or might venture out to a nickelodeon to catch a flicker, perhaps a newsreel followed by a two-reeler. But not all was fun and games. Doughboys were serving over there and getting a bad time of it from trench foot as well as from Jerry. The catchphrase of the period was twenty-three skidoo.

1920s
The Jazz Age of the roaring 20s was when a flapper might think a candy leg was the bee’s knees. It was the era of Prohibition and speakeasies, the rum runners and the G-men who confronted them, of cloche hats and raccoon coats, of the Red menace of Bolshevism, of Scopes Monkey Trial, and finally of Black Thursday.

1930s
The crash of ‘29 ushered in the Great Depression of the next decade, a time of Hoovervilles and the New Deal. It was the time of the Dust Bowl and the migration of Okies, of hobos and bindle stiffs. It was an age of acronyms, of NRA, TVA, and CCC. There were dance marathons where swinging cats and their hot patooties danced the jitterbug. It was also the time of the Bonus Army, the War of the Worlds, and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

1940s
The next decade was the era of WWII, of Axis and Allies, of liberty ships and victory gardens, of G.I. Joe and Rosie the Riveter. There was the phony war and Lend-Lease, America Firsters and Bundles for Britain. It was also the age of do rags, bobbysox, and zoot suits. The decade ended with the Berlin Airlift, the iron curtain, and the beginnings of the Atomic Age.

1950s
The 50s were the era of Levittown and the $64,000 Question. Fears of the decade centered around Sputnik, fellow travelers, and McCarthyism, but most of all around the H-bomb. There was another war this decade, this time against the Chicoms, a war full of bug outs and that ended with a DMZ. It was also the era of street rods and drag races, of beats and hipsters, of flipsville and kicksville.

1960s
The 60s were a bifurcated decade. It was the decade of Camelot and counterculture, of the Great Society and Vietnamization, of grunts and hippies, of afros and beehives, and of the Fab Four and Free Speech, America—love it or leave it and tune in, turn on, drop out.

1970s
The Me Decade was filled with Trekkies and future shock, leisure suits and disco balls, pet rocks and Rubik’s cubes. Musically, there was glam rock, disco, and punk. There were CBs with their good buddies and smokeys and Watergate with its plumbers and dirty tricks.

1980s
The 80s was a decade of yuppies, Valley girls, and computer geeks. The stock market was big, with insider trading, boiler rooms, and ending with Black Monday in 1987. There were parachute pants and Jheri curls, New Age ideas of auras and chakras, and urban trends of break dancing and rap.

1990s
The 90s came in with Desert Storm and went out with the dot-coms. We saw the Mother of All Battles and Y2K, neither of which lived up to their hype. There was spam and cyberpunks, Baldwins and Betties, microserfs and cybersquatters.

Dewdroppers is just a joy to peruse. Page after page is filled with interesting and nostalgic tidbits.

And if you’re wondering, dewdroppers (1920s) and slackers (1990s) are the same thing, the young and unambitious who are fond of sleep and criticized by the preceding generation. A Waldo (1980s) is an über-nerd, from the Where’s Waldo? series of children’s books.

Hardcover; 239 pages; Oxford University Press; 1 September 2003; $25.00

Word of the Month: Alcohol

1 October 2004

Usually our word of the month is linked thematically with a current or historical event or holiday that occurs during the month in question. This is not the case this time. Instead we selected a subject arbitrarily and that subject is alcohol, n., a class of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, specifically ethyl alcohol, an intoxicating liquid; from the medieval Latin, ultimately from the Arabic al-kuhul. The Arabic word referred to powdered antimony, used in cosmetics; applied in English to mean any powder produced by sublimation (1543); later applied to any distilled product (1642); finally to distilled liquors (1753); the specific chemical sense is from 1850.

What follows are the names of various types of liquor and other terms associated with alcohol and booze.

absinthe, n., a liqueur made from wine mixed with wormwood (modern absinthe is no longer made with wormwood); from the French name for the wormwood plant, ultimately from the Latin absinthum; 1842.

ale, n., a liquor made from fermented malt, hops, or other grains; originally distinguished from beer in that hops were not used in ale, but in modern use it differs because the grain used in ale is not roasted, resulting in a lighter brew; from the Old English alu, c.950.

aqua vitae, n., any alcoholic drink (1547), originally an alchemist’s term for any combustible liquid (1471); from the Latin meaning water of life, cf. whisky.

aquavit, n., a Scandinavian liquor distilled from potatoes; from the Scandinavian for aqua vitae, 1890.

Armagnac, n., a brandy from the Armagnac region of France, 1850.

arrack, n., a liquor distilled from fermented coco-palm sap or coconut juice, ca. 1602.

bathtub gin, n., homemade liquor, 1930.

beer, n., a liquor made from malt, hops, and other grains; from the Old English beor, ca.1000. The word was rare until the 16th C. when hops were introduced into the process and beer was used for the hopped beverage.

bitter, n., a type of beer, characterized by its taste, 1857.

bootleg, v., to trade in illicit liquor, from the practice of hiding bottles in one’s bootlegs, 1889. Also used as an adjective for illicit liquor or other articles. Also bootlegger, one who bootlegs.

booze, n., alcoholic drink, American slang from 1859. In earlier use to mean a drink of any type, 1732. From bouse meaning drink, liquor, or to drink.

bourbon, n., a type of American whiskey, originally from Bourbon County, Kentucky, 1846.

brandy, n., distilled wine. Originally brandwine, from the Dutch brandewijn, or burnt wine. Brandwine dates to 1622; the form brandy from 1657.

burgundy, n., red wine from the Burgundy region of France, 1672.

cabernet, n., a type of wine grape, from the French, 1833.

champagne, n., wine from the Champaign region of France, especially sparkling wine from this region and more generally sparkling wine from anywhere, 1664.

cider, n., fermented drink made from apples, c.1315. From the Old French sidre; ultimately from the Hebrew shekar, meaning strong drink, via the Latin and Greek.

cognac, n., brandy made in the town of Cognac, France or more generally to any French brandy, 1687.

dry, adj., related to prohibition of alcohol, favoring prohibition, 1870.

ethanol, n., 1900, also ethyl alcohol, 1869. Chemical compound, C2H5OH, that is the intoxicating compound produced by fermentation.

gin, n., grain spirit flavored with juniper berries, 1714. A clipping of geneva, meaning the same thing, 1706. From the Dutch genever, ultimately from the Latin juniperus.

grappa, n., brandy distilled from pits, stalks, and skins of grapes that have been pressed for wine, from the Italian, 1893.

hooch, n., American slang term for cheap or inferior liquor, from the name of the Hoochinoo Indians of Alaska who made a type of strong liquor. Hooch dates to 1897; the use of hoochinoo to refer to liquor is somewhat older, 1877. From the Tlingit Hutsnuwu, meaning grizzly bear fort.

lager, n., light-colored beer, brewed after the German fashion, suitable for long-term storage, 1855. A clipping of lager beer, 1853. From the German lager, meaning store, + beer.

liqueur, n., a sweetened and flavored alcoholic beverage, 1742. From liquor.

liquor, n., alcoholic beverage, originally a liquid of any type. The alcoholic beverage sense dates to ca.1300. From the Old French and ultimately the Latin.

malt, n., 1) name for barley or other grain used to produce alcoholic beverages; 2) Scottish term for drink in general, c.1547; 3) whisky made from malt, often malt whisky, 1718. From the Old English.

merlot, n., type of black wine grape, from the French, which in turn is from merle, or blackbird, an allusion to the grape’s color, 1825.

mezcal, n., alcoholic drink made from the agave plant, 1828. From the Spanish. Tequila is a variety of mezcal.

moonshine, n., illegally distilled or smuggled liquor, 1782. Probably so called because it is manufactured under cover of darkness.

pilsner, n., a lager beer with a hoppy flavor, 1877. Originally it referred to beer brewed in the town of Pilsen in Bohemia, but now is used to denote beer brewed in the Pilsner fashion.

porter, n., a type of beer brewed with partially charred or browned malt, resulting in a dark color and bitter taste, 1727. A clipping of porter’s ale or porter’s beer, a reference to the fact that the beer was originally popular among the laboring class.

poteen, n., illicitly distilled liquor made in Ireland, especially from a small, private still, 1812. From the Irish poitin, or little pot, a clipping of uisge poitín, or little pot whisky.

prohibition, n., the banning of the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages, esp. the nationwide ban in the United States that lasted from 1920-33. First used in this sense in 1851.

proof, n., a measurement of the strength of an alcoholic beverage, a full (100%) proof beverage has a specific gravity of 0.92 and is 49.5% alcohol by weight (57.3% by volume). Proof is measured by percentage, with pure alcohol being 200% proof. From having a proved or tested strength. 1705.

pulque, n., an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the agave plant, from the Spanish, the ultimate origin is unknown, probably from a Native American word, 1693.

rum runner, n., a liquor smuggler, 1920.

rum, n., an alcoholic beverage made from products of sugar cane, especially molasses, 1654. Of unknown origin, possibly a clipping of rumbullion and rumbustion, both also of unknown origin, which date to a few years earlier.

rye, n., American name for whiskey made from rye, a cereal grain, 1835. The word for the grain is from the Old English.

sangria, n., red wine diluted with lemon water and served chilled, 1961, from the Spanish for bleeding. Formerly sangaree in English usage, 1736.

sauvignon, n., a white grape used for wine, from the French.

schnapps, n., any of a variety of liqueurs with high alcoholic content, from the German for a dram, mouthful, 1818.

scotch, n., whisky from Scotland, especially that which is made from malt, 1835.

shiraz, n., a red wine grape from France, from the once-held belief that the grape was originally from the city in Persia of that name, 1927. Also called syrah, after the French name for the grape.

sour mash, n., American whisky made from fermented grain mash, 1885.

speakeasy, n., a bar or store where illegal alcohol is sold, 1889. From the idea that it should not be spoken of loudly.

spirits, n., a distilled alcoholic beverage, 1685. From an earlier sense meaning a distilled liquid containing the essence of a substance.

tequila, n., a variety of mezcal, an alcoholic beverage distilled from the fermented sap of the agave, 1849.

vodka, n., an alcoholic beverage usually distilled from rye, but also from barley, potatoes and other substances, 1802. From the Russian for little water.

Volstead Act, prop.n., the act of Congress that enforced the 18th amendment to the US Constitution that prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Officially called the “National Prohibition Act,” it was sponsored by Andrew Volstead, a Republican representative from Minnesota, and passed in 1920. It was annulled by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

wet, adj., relating to alcohol, c.1700.

whiskey, whisky, n., an alcoholic beverage distilled from any of a variety of grains, from the Gaelic uisgebeatha, 1715. The American spelling is predominantly whiskey, with whisky being preferred in Britain.

white lightning, n., American slang term for illegally distilled whiskey, 1921. 

wine, n., fermented juice of grapes, from the Old English win, ultimately from the Latin vinum.

zinfandel, n., a variety of wine grapes used in California, 1880.