Assignment #3: Jazz-Age Language
15%
Minimum 650 words
This assignment requires you to research the origins of a word or phrase used idiomatically. These
expressions come mainly from the 1920s-1930s, but many are still used today.
The Great Gatsby is full of such expressions; to modern readers, the characters sometimes seem to be
speaking a foreign language. For example, a “Chicago typewriter” was at the time slang for a Thompson
sub-machine gun – so called because of the gangland violence that riddled that city in the 1920s as the
likes of Al Capone and Bugsy Malone held sway over public works, illegal businesses, and corrupt city
officials. Thus we find the phrase appearing routinely in newspaper articles of the time, or in the
dialogue of an Ernest Hemingway story.
Where did these expressions originate? What are their roots, both etymologically and culturally or
contextually? How did they come to be understood? What’s the connection between their idiomatic
phrasing and their literal meaning? What are some examples of writings in which they were used?
(magazine articles, fiction, newspaper stories, headlines, poster art, advertisements, songs, titles of
plays or radio shows, poems, movies – just about any category or print or aural culture).
In the example above, it’s easy to see a connection between the sounds made by a typewriter and the
similar sounds made by a machine gun.
But some other examples might not be so obvious. For example, why were eyeglasses called “cheaters”
or the adjective “celestial” used derisively to refer to Asians?
Each of you will be assigned a word or phrase to research and write on (see below).
In your paper, you will need to cite two sources: (a) a reference work, either electronic or print; (b) a
newspaper or magazine article, either electronic or print.
Websites may not be cited as sources for this paper.
Quotations must be properly integrated into the text of your essay. Make sure the resultant
construction is grammatically correct.
Student
Barber
Branch
Word
Apple-knocker
Abe’s Cabe
Student
Barood
Castro
Churilla
Dodds
Ensley
Harvey
Murphy
Poteat
Dewdropper
Floor-flusher
Gasper
Glad rags
Iron hop
the whole nine
yards
Jorum of skee
Limey
Mrs. Grundy
Palooka
Ruben
On the lam
In the catbird seat
Tell it to Sweeney
The bee’s knees
let the cat out of
the bag
Dietz
Drummer
Galloway
Kyles
Phillips
Pressley
Word
Icy mitt
a red-headed
stepchild
Cake-eater
Speakeasy
Drum
Hope chest
Ish-kabibble
Joe Brooks
Spradley
Andersen
Brown
Edwards
Hager
King
Martz
Salazar
Smith
Wojt
Kike
Mick
Noodle juice
The Real McCoy
Simolean
High on the hog
Trip for biscuits
Tin Pan Alley
Life of Riley (Reilly)
Big six
Sizemore
Allen
Briden
Daugherty
Frazier
Hernandez
Lefort
Riley
Scheider
Tann