Albright College slang (1938) - "stuff for the birds," "schmo hawk"

[George Thompson]

"Betty Co-ed . . . has her own names for the college lads."

A pity that these aren't given, or any other specifically girl's slang.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
Date: Monday, March 7, 2011 2:50 am
Subject: Albright College slang (1938) - "stuff for the birds," "schmo              hawk"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> The 1938 article below from the _Reading (Pa.) Eagle_ has a nice
> selection of slang from Albright College (coincidentally, Michael
> Adams' old stomping grounds). Unfortunately the first paragraph is not
> entirely legible, obscuring a sentence with "(stuff) for the birds"
> (HDAS 1944).
>
> Further on we learn that "a 'dopey' person is referred to as a 'schmo
> hawk'" -- a term that later appears in Saul Bellow's  _Henderson the
> Rain King_ (1952) and the Larry David show _Curb Your Enthusiasm_
> (2007):
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmohawk
>
> This complicates the history of "schmo", previously dated to 1943 (in
> a Joe Palooka comic strip I turned up):
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412B&L=ADS-L&P=R13744
>
> Green's Dict of Slang includes this and also has "schmooh" from 1938,
> in _I Can Get It For You Wholesale_. So would "schmo hawk" have been
> understood in 1938 as a pun on "Mohawk" incorporating "schmo" as a
> minced form of "schmuck"? Or does it simply append "schm-" to "Mohawk"
> to approximate "schmuck"? In any case, it does seem that the "schmo"
> form got a boost from its early use in "schmo hawk".
>
> ---
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=77EhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zJsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1892,4467119
> _Reading (Pa.) Eagle_, Mar. 20, 1938, p. 7
> "Campus Lingo -- The Lexicon of Joe College and Miss Betty Co-ed"
>
> Strange indeed is the campus lingo these days of Joe College and Betty
> Co-ed. ... Take, for example, the latest lexicon at Albright College:
> [illegible bit about "scrounge" as fraternity brother who cuts in on a
> dance]
> [illegible] doesn't ring true is known at Albright as "stuff for the
> birds" while a person, place or thing that is no good has earned the
> dubious title of a "hump."
> When Joe College refers to the campus co-ed, it's usually "chippie,"
> or "scrag." Sometimes she is a "bimb" or "hunk of sneeze," but Betty
> Co-ed doesn't mind. She has her own names for the college lads.
> If a student wants to study and his room is invaded by his fraternity
> or dormitory brothers, he politely tells them to leave by saying in
> the inimitable manner that college boys have, "cop a sneak," "cop a
> breeze," or "take a powder." A student that has made good in his
> examinations has "hit it on the nose," and a freshman is one who
> "doesn't know what the score is."
> A "dopey" person is referred to as a "schmo hawk," while an obese
> person is a "lardy." Joe College says "cut your bumpin'" to the
> classmate who wants to be on good terms with the professor and "don't
> give me the business" to someone who he thinks is giving him a line.
> A short fellow is a "short-wave," the student with flat feet is a
> "duck foot," and the fraternity brother who goes home for the week-end
> is going to "tear off a little romance" -- presumably with the girl
> back home.
> Money, which means dollars and cents in any language, is given a
> slightly different twist up at Albright. A five dollar bill is a
> "finskie," a nickel is a "jit," and a half a dollar is "half a
> schnooze," "half a schmier," or a "half a rock." Any fellow that's
> broke doesn't have any "cabbage."
> Educators are completely stumped by this one. It's "gagooch" --
> meaning a bad bridge hand. A kiss, as a rule, always implies romance,
> but at college it's a "schnoodler-doodler!"
> Coeds give the boys "a cuckoo" when they stand them up on a date.
> Students playing a game of cards are known to be "busy in the movies,"
> or watching pictures." If you're hungry and decide to go out to eat,
> you're "scauffin' it up," and if you go out for a little fun you're
> "out on a tear."
> Cigarette butts are "savies," examination aids are "cribs," and things
> that students can't find a word for are "twitches."
> When a student calls up the girl friend for a date it is considered
> rather amateurish to ask her is she would care to go out. Now it's
> "would you like to pitch-a-little-woo?" or "how's about some muggin'?"
> The boy and girl holding hands in the back rows during chapel or class
> are known to be "fourth rowing." [etc.]
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org