Old sport! Ellen carries a torch for the big cheese with the swanky car. She thinks he’s the bee’s knees!
Each age has its slang and the same goes for the 1920s when The Great Gatsby is set. Some of these expressions are still used today. But what do they really mean and why do we say these things? Looking at the history behind words is a great way to understand them better and discover the culture and context. As I am a bit of a perfectionist, I feel this enables me to get to know a word very well and I find it very satisfying. Let’s look at five 20s expressions and really get behind them. Ready? Old sport "Sorry, old sport, I thought you knew" When you hear the word old you probably associate it with something that is no longer new or young but like all words in English the meaning is much wider than that. ‘Old’ can also mean dating from far back; long-established or known. "we greeted each other like old friends" And by extension is used to express affection or familiarity. "good old Mum" Sport comes from Old French desport, deport "pleasure, enjoyment, delight; solace, consolation; favor, privilege," related to desporter, deporter "to divert, amuse, please, play" in Middle English disport meaning "consolation, solace; a source of comfort." It evolved to mean "activity that offers amusement or relaxation; entertainment, fun" (c. 1300), also "a pastime or game; flirtation; pleasure taken in such activity" (late 14c.) and in early 15c., "pleasant pastime". The meaning "game involving physical exercise" was first recorded in the 1520s. The sense of "stylish man" is from 1861, American English, probably because they lived by gambling and betting on races. Meaning "good fellow" is attested from 1881 (as in be a sport, 1913). Sport as a familiar form of address to a man is from 1935, Australian English. So ‘old sport’ is a term of affection used for a companion that you have known for a long time and that you are have shared sport, games and adventure with. Bees knees If someone is ‘bees knees’ they are highly admired. ‘Jane is crazy about her new boyfriend. She thinks he’s the bee’s knees.’ Does it derive from the fact that bees carry pollen back to the hive in sacs on their legs? Probably not. It might be an example of amerlioration where a negative meaning turns positive. The bee's from the late 18th century meant something small or insignificant in the phrase big as a bee's knee. As weak as a bee's knee is an Irish saying. In the 1920s it was fashionable to use nonsense terms to denote excellence - 'the snake's hips', 'the kipper's knickers', 'the cat's pyjamas/whiskers', 'the monkey's eyebrows' and so on. I think this is a kind of phrase that Fitzgerald himself would like as he often puts together words that don’t usually match, for example when Tom Buchanan is described as having a ‘cruel body’. Big Cheese The Big cheese is the boss, or someone with an important status. “He is a big cheese in the Art Fraud Squad.” But perhaps this phrase does not originate from English at all. The Anglo-Indian dictionary Hobson-Jobson, published in 1886, contained colloquialisms and phrases that had been born out of a mixture between English and the variety of languages that were spoken in India at the time. One word that appeared in Hobson-Jobson was “chiz”, which roughly translated to mean “thing”. The phrase was incredibly common amongst Anglo-Indians and was used to describe something as genuine or positive. “Chiz” was probably mistaken by English ears for the more familiar sounding “cheese”. In the 1920s, for publicity, a giant wheel or block of cheese would be displayed for some time and then ceremonially cut up by some important person. Carry a torch If you carry a torch for someone, you are interested in them romantically. This dates to the Greek and Roman tradition of a wedding torch, lit in the bride’s home on her wedding night, then used to light the fire in her new home. Such a torch is associated with the Greek god of marriage Hymenaios. Sharing of the water and fire testified that the marriage had taken place. Hymen was generally represented in art as a young man wearing a garland of flowers and holding a burning torch in one hand. Hymen was mentioned in Euripides's The Trojan Women where Cassandra says: Bring the light, uplift and show its flame! I am doing the god's service, see! I making his shrine to glow with tapers bright. O Hymen, king of marriage! blest is the bridegroom; blest am I also, the maiden soon to wed a princely lord in Argos. Hail Hymen, king of marriage! Swanky If you describe something as swanky, you mean that it is fashionable and expensive. ...one of the swanky hotels that line the Pacific shore at Acapulco. Swanky comes from Middle High German swanken "to sway, totter, turn, swing," and Old High German swingan "to swing;". This gave the notion is of "swinging" the body ostentatiously from 1809 as "to strut, behave ostentatiously." And "ostentatious behavior," 1854 evolving to "stylish, classy, posh," 1913.
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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