Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Boodlers and Snollygosters!

What the ever-lovin' heavens are boodlers and snollygosters??

Well, let's start with a little background, pulled from my newest slang acquisition, Slinging Mud: Rude Nicknames, Scurrilous Slogs, and Insulting Slang from Two Centuries of American Politics by Rosemarie Ostler.

Boodle, it turns out, is an old word, meaning someone's "estate or possessions." It later evolved into a slang term for conterfeit money, and finally into ill-gotten gains in general. Boodle was a popular term in the Gilded Age, when scoundrels abounded!

Now, how about snollygoster?

Again, according to Slinging Mud, "This word was popularized almost single-handedly by a Georgia Democrat named H. KJ. W. Ham, who traveled around the country during the 1890s with a stump speech titled "The Snollygoster in Politics."

With these hints, what do you make of these euphonious bits of (semi-political) slang from a bygone era?
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According to Green's Dictionary of Slang (yes, I switched references on you) a boodler is either:
  1. a swindler, specializing in passing counterfeit notes
  2. a corrupt politician
Green's also has much to say about snollygoster, going on at some length:

... It was coined during or near the time of the US Civil War. There may be a link the Maryland snallygaster, a mythical monster supposedly part reptile and part bird, designed to terrify ex-slaves out of voting. .. A shrewd, unprincipled person, esp. a politcian.

There you go! Two terms you can inject into your personal political debates to confound your opponent...

Boodler? Snollygoster? I'd say both! By Harper & Brothers; illustration by Thomas Nast - Source, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48782690


2 comments:

Liz said...

Love those terms.

Nice post on Jungle Reds.

Ann Parker said...

Hi Liz!
I love the terms too! I love how they sound and how they are spelled and don't they just "fit the bill." ;-)
Glad you enjoyed the Jungle Red Writers post. I had a lot of fun writing it!