Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: For a song

When you can obtain something for a song, you expect to get it inexpensively, right? In fact, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer defines the phrase as meaning "very cheaply, for little money, especially for less than something is worth" and gives an example straight out of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well:

I know a man... sold a goodly manor for a song.

So how long has this idiom been around, and why would it refer to buying on the cheap?

Any guesses?
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Ammer places its first appearance in the late 1500s (well, Shakespeare, after all) and notes:
"This idiom alludes to the pennies given to street singers or to the small cost of sheet music." The Free Dictionary says pretty much the same: "The ultimate origin of this phrase is probably the practice, in former times, of selling written copies of ballads very cheaply at fairs." According to this entry, the expression was in common use by the mid-17th century.

TheIdioms.com goes with a first appearance in the 1500s and agrees that the phrase probably refers to street singers, adding, "They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefore, you would not be paid much for it."

Singing... not a large accomplishment???

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

The idiom is probably related to street singers. They would stand on the side of the street and people would give them pennies. Singing was not seen as a large accomplishment as it could be done by everyone. Therefor, you would not be paid much for it. You would also have to pay for sheet music (1500s.) (Theidioms.com)

Theia Carrington Drake, my fictional prima donna who takes center stage in my newest Silver Rush historical mystery, MORTAL MUSIC, would vehemently disagree.

You won't get this kind of singing for a song.
By Thomas Rowlandson - JwFP_imNhhV_iw at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, Link

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: High dudgeon

Now here is a phrase I've used before without really thinking about it. (Confession: for a long time, I thought it was high dungeon, not high dudgeon.) So what the heck is a dudgeon anyway? And if it's a high dudgeon vs a low dudgeon? It's all a bit of a mystery to me...
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Turns out, this phrase is a bit of a mystery all around. From World Wide Words, we have this:

...[Dudgeon] is one of a distressingly large group of words for which we have no idea of their origins. The group includes a couple of others also ending in -udgeon: bludgeon and curmudgeon.
Dudgeon means a state of anger, resentment, or offence and often turns up as in dudgeon or in high dudgeon The Oxford English Dictionary can’t give its source, though it’s sure it’s not from the Welsh word dygen, meaning malice or resentment, which has been suggested in the past. It does point to endugine, a word recorded just once, in 1638, with the same sense, which might have given us a clue, but doesn’t help at all.
It also records another sense of the word, itself mysterious, for a kind of wood used by turners, especially the handles of knives or daggers. It has been suggested it was another name for boxwood. It appears in Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before.” Later the word was used for a dagger whose handle was made of this wood.
It just might be that a state of anger or resentment could have led to the grabbing of a dudgeon knife with intent to redress a slight, but there’s no evidence whatever of the connection.

The Online Etymological Dictionary gives a similar shrug of the shoulders:

Dudgeon (n.) "feeling of offense, resentment, sullen anger," 1570s, duggin, of unknown origin. One suggestion is Italian aduggiare "to overshadow," giving it the same sense development as umbrage. No clear connection to earlier dudgeon (late 14c.), a kind of wood used for knife handles, which is perhaps from French douve "a stave," which probably is Germanic. The source also has been sought in Celtic, especially Welsh dygen "malice, resentment," but OED reports that this "appears to be historically and phonetically baseless."

You can also read a bit more about this phrase at the Grammarphobia blog, right here. All in all, it seems that knives are involved. Very dangerous, if the person gripping the knife happens to be in high dudgeon.

... Is this a dagger which I see before me? (If it's being wielded in high dudgeon, I'm outta here.)
[By Alphonse Mucha - Art Renewal Center – description, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8879553]

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Helter-skelter

I am probably showing my age, but the first thing that pops to mind when I see the term helter-skelter is the song of that title by The Beatles (see YouTube clip below).

Well, I also think of the murderer Charles Manson (ack!)... which also probably shows my age.

However, the phrase go way way back... many centuries, in fact.
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The definition from my copy of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth edition) gives definitions for its use as a noun, an adjective, and an adverb.... take your choice!

• noun — 1. a disorderly confusion: turmoil; 2. a spiral slide around a tower at an amusement park (<--now I understand The Beatles song a little better!).
• adjective — 1. confusedly hurried: precipitate; 2. marked by a lack of order or plan: haphazard.
• adverb — 1. in undue haste, confusion, or disorder; 2. in a haphazard manner.

Helter-skelter!
[By Steve F, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13743455]

As for the years of first use? How about 1713 for the noun, 1785 for the adjectival form, and 1593 for the adverb!

I shouldn't be surprised, because now I also recall that Shakespeare used it... although I had to go digging to find out where (Henry IV, Part II).



The Phrase Finder has a nifty post on helter-skelter, which is sort-of, semi-related to harum-scarum, hurly-burly, and pell-mell.

Finally, as promised, here is your musical interlude, straight from '68.

Slang, American Style by Guest Author Michael A. Black

Please welcome guest author Michael A. Black. Michael is the award winning author of 31 books, the majority of which are in the mystery and thriller genres, although he has written in sci-fi, western, horror, and sports genres as well. A retired police officer, he has done everything from patrol to investigating homicides to conducting numerous SWAT operations. Black was awarded the Cook County Medal of Merit in 2010. He is also the author of over 100 short stories and articles, and has written two novels with television star, Richard Belzer (Law & Order SVU). Black is currently writing the Executioner series under the name Don Pendleton. His Executioner novel, Fatal Prescription, won the Best Original Novel Scribe Award given by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers in 2018. His latest novels are Blood Trails, under his own name, and Dying Art, under the name Don Pendleton. Both are available on Amazon.com.
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 I’ve always been fascinated by language and all of its nuances. While I studiously learned the rules of grammar in school and studied English in college, I soon came to realize that language changes and evolves over time, like a living thing. Having to learn Middle English while studying Chaucer as an undergrad, I marveled at how different things sounded back in the 1380s when Geoffrey was penning The Canterbury Tales. Take a look at the Prologue:

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Which translates in Modern English as:

WHEN APRIL with his showers sweet with fruit
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;

Yeah, things have changed quite a bit over the years. In fact, by the time Shakespeare started penning his plays about 200 years after Chaucer, the English language had morphed into something closer to what we speak today. Note the difference:

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

Except for the “doth” part I might have come up with that one myself.

As I said, language is always changing and one of the most noticeable changes is often reflected by slang. Slang expressions, or idioms, are present in every spoken language. The words take on new meanings, which are influenced by a variety of sources. It’s important that a writer keep tabs on these changes in language, especially if he’s writing historical fiction.

Now let me break in here to point out a bit of change that has occurred to our language in the past several years. Take a look at the last sentence of the previous paragraph, more specifically, if he’s writing historical fiction. Back in the day, when I was in school, the masculine pronoun was considered the automatic default when speaking in generalities. Thus, the sentence, Everybody should keep his affairs in order would be correct. Social changes now dictate that it should be Everybody should keep his or her affairs in order, or the grammatically incorrect, their affairs. Everybody is in fact singular, so the usage of a plural pronoun in this instance should be totally wrong, yet as our society continues to change, such usage becomes more widespread and accepted.

Well, I’ll leave that one for the grammarians to fight out, but it’s wise to remember that people don’t always speak in grammatically correct sentences.

So if you’re writing a period piece set in the 1800s, and you want it to sound appropriate to the period, you wouldn’t have one character ask the other, “Can you dig it?”

“Dig what?” the other guy might ask.

The overuse of slang can be offsetting, as well. Back when I was a cop I had to learn to communicate with a lot of different people. Slang terms used by the people I had to deal with on the street sometime was like going back to study Chaucer.

“I was just standing there rappin’ when the m/f stole on me.”
 Translation: He was talking when someone punched him.

“He was looking to score some tac.”
Translation: He was attempting to buy some PCP.

“That one was off the chain.”
Translation: It was very good.

She’s hot. Translates to she’s very pretty.

He’s jonesing for her. Translates to he desires her.

I should mention that cops have their own forms of slang, too. These terms often vary from region to region, and a little research as to what type of vernacular is used where, can be helpful in your writing.

The term “perp” might be common in New York, but nobody in Chicago or LA is going to refer to a suspect that way. And while police in the Chicago would use the phrase, “Ten-four” as an acknowledgment, an officer in LA would say, “Roger that.”

A lot of these misconceptions stem from the movies and TV. Do your research to avoid sounding out of place.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add my own personal lament on what I deem the deterioration of language in the twenty-first century. Since the advent of texting, a whole new set of slang terms has emerged from millennials, and my opinion, it’s to the detriment of language. LOL, FYI, BBF, #METOO, GOAT, etc. have all taken the place of using actual words to say what you want to say. I consider this LL—lazy language. The same can be said about the tendency to combine numbers and words: Boys2Men, 4you, and the like.

This personal bias on my part can be traced back long ago to my high school days. One guy, whom I particularly didn’t like, signed my yearbook with the inscription, 2good 2be 4gotten. I thought he was an idiot then, and nothing has occurred in the intervening decades to alter my opinion. But with 20/20 hindsight, I now think that perhaps I was wrong. Considering some of the newest forms of millennial slang, perhaps he was more prescient than I thought.

But how much slang is enough, and how much is too much? Since the basic purpose of writing, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, is to convey a message, the important thing is to make sure the message is not too esoteric. Writing something in slang may result in that message not being transmitted properly. Keep in mind that it’s far more effective to sprinkle a bit of slang here and there in your work, to give it the flavor of the speech you’re trying to emulate. It’s like sprinkling a bit of salt in the kettle of soup. Too little and it has no taste; too much and it tastes briny.