Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1917 — “Potwalloper" Word With History. [ARTICLE]

“Potwalloper" Word With History.

Potwalloper is a slang word with a history, meaning literally a pot boiler. There is an old English word wallop, meaning to boil with a bubbling sound. Before the passage of the so-called reform act of 1832, persons in England who had occupied a single room and boiled a pot for six months claimed the right to vote in an election for members of parliament, on the ground that boiling a pot and cooking food at their own fire ipade them householders. The act of 1832 recognized their claim by providing that those who had previously exercised the right of suffrage on that ground should not be deprived of it, but the act gave a new definition for householder. 1 Pot boiler, the modern form of potwalloper, means one who does literary or artistic work job, mainly to keep the pot boiling.