The spirit of the language appears scarcely less clearly in some of the coinages of the other classes. There are, for example, the English words that have been extended or restricted in meaning, /e. g./, /docket/ (for court calendar), /betterment/ (for improvement to property), /collateral/ (for security), /crank/ (for fanatic), /jumper/ (for tunic), /tickler/ (for memorandum or reminder),[19] /carnival/ (in such phrases as /carnival of crime/), /scrape/ (for fight or difficulty),[20] /flurry/ (of snow, or in the market), /suspenders/, /diggings/ (for habitation) and /range/. Again, there are the new assemblings of English materials, /e. g./, /doggery/, /rowdy/, /teetotaler/, /goatee/, /tony/ and /cussedness/. Yet again, there are the purely artificial words, /e. g./, /sockdolager/, /hunkydory/, /scalawag/, /guyascutis/, /spondulix/, /slumgullion/, /rambunctious/, /scrumptious/, [Pg082] /to skedaddle/, /to absquatulate/ and /to exfluncticate/.[21] In the use of the last-named coinages fashions change. In the 40's /to absquatulate/ was in good usage, but it has since disappeared. Most of the other inventions of the time, however, have to some extent survived, and it would be difficult to find an American of today who did not know the meaning of /scalawag/ and /rambunctious/ and who did not occasionally use them. A whole series of artificial American words groups itself around the prefix /ker/, for example, /ker-flop/, /ker-splash/, /ker-thump/, /ker-bang/, /ker-plunk/, /ker-slam/ and /ker-flummux/. This prefix and its onomatopoeic daughters have been borrowed by the English, but Thornton and Ware agree that it is American. Its origin has not been determined. As Sayce says, "the native instinct of language breaks out wherever it has the chance, and coins words which can be traced back to no ancestors."
In the first chapter I mentioned the superior imaginativeness revealed by Americans in meeting linguistic emergencies, whereby, for example, in seeking names for new objects introduced by the building of railroads, they surpassed the English /plough/ and /crossing-plate/ with /cow-catcher/ and /frog/. That was in the 30's. Already at that early day the two languages were so differentiated that they produced wholly distinct railroad nomenclatures. Such commonplace American terms as /box-car/, /caboose/, /air-line/ and /ticket-agent/ are still quite unknown in England. So are /freight-car/, /flagman/, /towerman/, /switch/, /switching-engine/, /switch-yard/, /switchman/, /track-walker/, /engineer/, /baggage-room/, /baggage-check/, /baggage-smasher/, /accommodation-train/, /baggage-master/, /conductor/, /express-car/, /flat-car/, /hand-car/, /way-bill/, /expressman/, /express-office/, /fast-freight/, /wrecking-crew/, /jerk-water/, /commutation-ticket/, /commuter/, /round-trip/, /mileage-book/, /ticket-scalper/, /depot/, /limited/, /hot-box/, iron-horse, /stop-over/, /tie/, /rail/, /fish-plate/, /run/, /train-boy/, /chair-car/, /club-car/, /diner/, /sleeper/, /bumpers/, /mail-clerk/, /passenger-coach/, /day-coach/, /excursionist/, [Pg083] /excursion-train/, /railroad-man/, /ticket-office/, /truck/ and /right-of-way/, not to mention the verbs, /to flag/, /to derail/, /to express/, /to dead-head/, /to side-swipe/, /to stop-over/, /to fire/ (/i. e./, a locomotive), /to switch/, /to side-track/, /to railroad/, /to commute/, /to telescope/ and /to clear the track/. These terms are in constant use in America; their meaning is familiar to all Americans; many of them have given the language everyday figures of speech.[22] But the majority of them would puzzle an Englishman, just as the English /luggage-van/, /permanent-way/, /goods-waggon/, /guard/, /carrier/, /booking-office/, /return-ticket/, /railway-rug/, /R. S. O./ (railway sub-office), /tripper/, /line/, /points/, /shunt/, /metals/ and /bogie/ would puzzle the average untravelled American.