Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1883 — WORKMEN'S SLANG. [ARTICLE]

WORKMEN'S SLANG.

How the Inferior Hands in Different WorkAopt Are j 4; Strikes firing out the technical slang of the trades, and particularly the opjjrobious epithet with which the different classes of workmen distinguish the unskilled operatives who labor at the -shine trades. In mbst cases it will be found that these slang terms originate in some technicality of the trade. Thus, the telegraphers call a pOor operator a “plug, aftej- the little metal implement which divides the switches on the keyboard, inasmuch as the plug, or “kef,” is a comparatively unimportant part of the machinery. Printers designate an unskilled type-setter a “shoemaker” or a “blacksmith.” The derivation of the former appellation is from the fact that -a compositor who makes errors is obliged to correct them after the type is set up by taking out the misplaced letters and “pegging” the proper ones into their places. Tailors also use the word “shoemaker” to distinguish a poor hand, as an unskilled workman takes his stitches too far apart, and is therefore better adapted to sew leather, where he can punch the holes with an awl before putting his needle through. The appellation “blacksmith” is applied to a printer whose fingers are clumsy, and a jeweler also terms an unskilled worker at his trade a “blacksmith” for the same reason. A term of opprobium w r hich was .used by old New York printers -to designate an unskilled compositor was the word “boarder,” from the fact that a poor hand was generally a drinking man and spent his time loafing or “boarding” in liquor saloons. All -striking trades-workers in common use the generic word “scab” to distinguish workmen who take the places of strikers. The derivation-* is obviously from the fact that the scab is a morbid growth, and lives only at the expense of the well-being of the rest of the body. Shakspeare uses the word scab as a term of opprobium, and Webster

defines a scab as “a mean, duty, paltry, fellow,” which may have suggested the original application of the word tc its present usjh The printers and telegraphers, two of the most intelligent classes of workmen, are the only tradesmen who have invented names to particularize the scabs of. their respective professions. Thus, compositors call a scab a “rat,” in contemptuous allusion to the rodents who infest printing-: offices. Telegraphers have only recently invented a term for scab operators. They call them “contumists,” though the application is not of technical derivation, but is probably an attempt to manufacture a word from the Latin coniwna’, the root of contumacious, to describe a stubborn and obstinate person. The various names actors give to the unskilled members of. their profession are familiar to most of the reading world. A poor actor is termed .variously a “stick,” “fakir,” “statue,” or “dummy.” A “stick' or “statue” is, naturally enough, an actor who is awkward .and stiff on the stage. The term “dummy” is derived from the fact that when a traveling company has not enough members in the troupe to fill up a large stage, men and women are employed to stand in the back with choruses or supernumeraries and take no other part. They, are called “dummies.” “Fakir” is a generic term, and comprises those actors who lack talent .and depend Upon their resources. For instance, a comedian who makes faces, is called a “mugger,” and a tragedian who bellows is a “ranter,” and both are “fakirs,” The professors of the manly art are also apt in this style of nomenclature. Call a cowardly fighter a “duffer,” and a weak or unskilled boxer a “sand-bag” or a “stuff,” the latter terms being derived from the 1 contrivance upon which the pugilist does his practice.