Origin of American slang

[dhermann1]

This is from yesterday's NY Times. Fascinating, fun, and very convincing. Who knew??!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/n...em&ex=1194757200&en=ac886d77559f0709&ei=5087

 

[The Wolf]

It is quite convincing.
I thought a lot of the slang came from Yiddish, but that might have to do with the neighborhood.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[reetpleat]

Makes sense taht a lot of words came into the english language from this large wave of immigrants. I am not so sure I would call it slang though. When a new group comes in and uses words from their language mixed in with english, is that slang?

I guess if others adopt it not knowing wht it means, then it might be called slang.

But every wave of immigrants has introduced words to the language. The Irish may have a certain flair for it that makes it a little more infectious.

 

[Undertow]

I won't argue with the article, because I'm certainly not an expert in the field, but I do find some of those "similarities" a little dubious. In my experience, slang is quite difficult to pinpoint, and often, we are misled by similar sounding, yet unrelated, foreign words.

Please take the following article about the slang term "OK" as point in hand:
What Does "OK" stand for?

You'll notice at the bottom of the article, various languages are brought into the mix:

[note, the following are the myths listed in the article]
1.It's a derivative of the Choctaw Indian affirmative "okeh." Andrew Jackson, who figures in many stories about OK, is said to have introduced the word to the white man.
5.A variant is that it comes from the French au quai, "to the dock," said of cotton that had been approved for loading on a ship.
6.It comes from the Greek Olla Kalla, "all good."

The truth of the matter is that it stands for "oll korrect", which you will note in the above full article.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Pardon my crudeness, but I've often wondered if the slang word "trim" was derived from the trimming room at hat factories, which were staffed with women. It makes sense, anyway.

Brad