AMERICANISMS.

American every-day speech is full of curious expressions now-a-days when "slang" is so very plentiful, and some of these, while not in the slightest ungramatical, are yet always condemned as "Americanisms." Nearly every one from childhood has heard the name, "Americanisms" applied to certain words or phrases, and gradually everyone learns to feel that all expressions so stamped ought at least to be avoided if not suppressed. And yet there are but comparatively few people who know what an "Americanism" really is. In a recent article Mr. Richard Grant White in referring to them, answers the question admirably. He states that "it is very rarely that a word or a phrase can be set down as an Americanism except upon probability and opinion; whereas the contrary is shown, if shown at all, upon fact-proof that cannot be gainsaid. The citation of a word from English literature at or before the time of Dryden shows that it cannot possibly be "American" in origin; evidence of its continued use by British writers during the last century and the present proves the impossibility of its being an Americanism in any sense of that term. Indeed, evidence and proof should hardly be mentioned in relation to this showing. Of words and phrases which have such origin and history as has just been specified, it is simply to be said that they are English. To stamp a word or a phrase as an Americanism, it is necessary to show that (1) it is of so called "American" origin,-that is that it first came into use in the United States of North America; or that (2) it has been adopted in those States from some language other than English, or has been kept in use there while it has wholly passed out of use in England."