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

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:32 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> 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" alive and kicking in cop-operas

> When Joe College refers to the campus co-ed, it's usually "chippie,"
> or "scrag." Sometimes she is a

"bimb"  ancestor of _bimbo_?

 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"  "Donald-Duck foot" used in the Army to describe a foot
with a disproportionally-wide                        metatarsal arch

and the fraternity brother who goes home for the week-end
> is going to

"tear off a little romance"  no comment necessary

 -- 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"  used in the Army for any act of eating; seen it in
literature as "scoff"; also heard as "scarf"; a GI conned out of his
pay by a B-girl was said to have been "scoffed up"/scarfed up"; the
B-girls themselves were sometimes referred to as "the scoffers"/"the
scarfers"

> and if you go out for a little fun you're "out on a tear."
> Cigarette butts are

"savies"  in Saint Louis, there was the expression, "_Save_ me the
short," wherein "short" = "savy"

> 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' "  in the song, Stuff Like That There, Betty Hutton asked for
"some huggin' an' some muggin' "
> The boy and girl holding hands in the back rows during chapel or class
> are known to be "fourth rowing." [etc.]
> ---
>

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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