H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921.
Page 103
Sauerkraut and noodle, as we have seen, came in during the colonial period, apparently through the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch, i. e., a mixture, much debased, of the German dialects of Switzerland, Suabia and the Palatinate. The later immigrants contributed pretzel, pumpernickel, hausfrau, lager-beer, pinocle, wienerwurst (often reduced to wiener or wienie), frankfurter, bock-beer, schnitzel, leberwurst (sometimes half translated as liverwurst), blutwurst, rathskeller, schweizer (cheese), delicatessen, hamburger (i. e., steak), kindergarten and katzenjammer.36 From them, in all probability, there also came two very familiar Americanisms, loafer and bum. The former, according to the Standard Dictionary, is derived from the German laufen; another authority says that it originated in a German mispronunciation of lover, i. e., as lofer.37 Thornton shows that the word was already in common use in 1835. Bum was originally bummer, and apparently derives from the German bummler.38 Both words have produced derivatives: loaf (noun), to loaf, cornerloafer, common-loafer, to bum, bum (adj.) and bummery, not to mention on the bum. Loafer has migrated to England, but bum is still unknown there in the American sense. In England, indeed,
Note 36. The majority of these words, it will be noted, relate to eating and drinking. They mirror the profound effect of German immigration upon American drinking habits and the American cuisine. In July, 1921, despite the current prejudice against all things German, I found sour-braten on the bill-of-fare at Delmonico’s in New York, and, more surprising still, “braten with potato-salad.” It is a fact often observed that loan-words, at least in modern times, seldom represent the higher aspirations of the creditor nation. French and German have borrowed from English, not words of lofty significance, but such terms as beefsteak, roast-beef, pudding, grog, jockey, tourist, sport, five-o’clock tea, cocktail and sweepstakes, and from American such terms as tango, foxtrot, one-step and canoe (often spelled kanu). “The contributions of England to European civilization, as tested by the English words in Continental languages,” says L. P. Smith, “are not, generally, of a kind to cause much national self-congratulation.” See also The English Element in Foreign Language, by the same author, in English, March, 1919, p. 15 et seq. Nor would a German, I daresay, be very proud of the German contributions to American. [back]
Note 37.Vide a paragraph in Notes and Queries, quoted by Thornton. [back]
Note 38. Thornton offers examples of this form ranging from 1856 to 1885. During the Civil War the word acquired the special meaning of looter. The Southerners thus applied it to Sherman’s men. Vide Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. xii, p. 428; Richmond, 1884. Here is a popular rhyme that survived until the early 90’s:
Isidor, psht, psht!
Vatch de shtore, psht, psht!
Vhile I ketch de bummer
Vhat shtole de suit of clothes!
Bummel-zug is common German slang for slow train. [back]
