Particular as lawyers generally are about the meanings of words, they have not prevented an unauthorized phraseology from arising, which may be termed legal Slang. So forcibly did this truth impress a late writer, that he wrote in a popular journal, "You may hear Slang every day in term from barristers in their robes, at every mess-table, at every bar-mess, at every college commons, and in every club dining-room." Swift, in his _Art of Polite Conversation_ (p. 15), published a century and a half ago, states that "vardi" was the Slang in his time for "verdict." A few of the most common and well-known terms used out of doors, with reference to legal matters, are "cook," to hash or make up a balance-sheet; "dipped," mortgaged; "dun" (from a famous writ or process-server named Dunn), to solicit payment; "fullied," to be "fully committed for trial;" "land shark," a sailor's definition of a lawyer; "limb of the law," a milder term for the same "professional;" "monkey with a long tail," a mortgage; "mouthpiece," the thief's term for his counsel; "to run through the ring," to take advantage of the Insolvency Act; "smash," to become bankrupt; "snipe," an attorney with a long bill; and "whitewash," to take the benefit of the Insolvent Act. Comparatively recent legislation has rendered many of these terms obsolete, and "in liquidation" is now the most ominous sound a creditor can hear. Lawyers, from their connexion with the police courts, and transactions with persons in every grade of society, have ample opportunities for acquiring street Slang, of which, in cross-questioning and wrangling, they frequently avail themselves.
It has been said there exists a literary Slang, or the Slang of Criticism--dramatic, artistic, and scientific. This is composed of such words as "æsthetic," "transcendental," "the harmonies," "the unities," a "myth;" such phrases as "an exquisite _morceau_ on the big drum," a "scholarlike rendering of John the Baptist's great toe," "keeping harmony," "middle distance," "aërial perspective," "delicate handling," "nervous chiaroscuro," and the like. It is easy to find fault with this system of doing work, whilst it is not easy to discover another at once so easily understood by educated readers, and so satisfactory to artists themselves. Discretion must, of course, always be used, in fact always is used by the best writers, with regard to the quantity of technical Slang an article will hold comfortably. Overdone mannerism is always a mistake, and generally defeats its own end. Properly used, these technicalities are allowable as the generous inflections and bendings of a bountiful language, for the purpose of expressing fresh phases of thought, and ideas not yet provided with representative words.[52] _Punch_ often employs a Slang term to give point to a joke, or humour to a line of satire. In his best day he gave an original etymology of the schoolboy-ism "slog." "Slog," said the classical and then clever _Punch_, is derived from the Greek word "slogo," to baste, to wallop, to slaughter. To show his partiality to the subject, he once amused his readers with two columns on Slang and Sanscrit, from which the following is taken:--