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You're listening to Away With Words. I'm Martha Barnett.

And I'm Grand Barrett.

Martha, I was reading the newspaper from 1931.

Catching up, are you? Catching up. Catching up on my underworld lingo. You have a ways to go.

Well, there was a great article in November of 1931, written by a fellow by the name of Ben Kendall.

And he was a police reporter who got a little entangled with the wrong side of the law. So I think this slang is good. He had started out in Chicago, moved to L.A., and along the way, he picked up a lot of curious language, and he's put it in print here. And what's really interesting, there's two things about this list. One, a lot of this stuff is still with us. And two, in a lot of cases, he's one of the earliest people to put

this language in print. So we have, for example, he talks about McGimper. Do you know what McGimper is? McGimper? Was that an early version of McGiver? I don't know. Somebody who invented things? It's a pimp. It's a pimp or a procurer. He uses it in this sentence. She would go straight if it wasn't for that McGimper who

knocks her for a loop when she don't bring in the Guitus. And we'll talk a little bit about Guitus

later in the program. And how about this one? Well, you know what a chisler is, right?

Somebody who chisels off money, right? Yeah. A cheat? Yep. Ben Kendall defines it as a petty grafter or a borrower or a price cutter.

This guy's always looking for a deal, right, or a little extra money for his pocket. It's interesting that he felt compelled to put that in a newspaper article. Right. It shows you that it wasn't mainstream at the time, right? And I think most people would, like, for example, Glam, to steal or to take is in his glossary.

That means at the time, he would think that most people would know the time, right? And I think most people would, like, for example, Glam, to steal or to take is in his glossary. That means at the time he would think that most people would know the term. And so he really is kind of putting this stuff in print at a time when looking back on it, it made a difference. Well, this list sounds like a lot of fun. We should link to it on our website. Of course, yeah. We'll put some good samples of it. Okay. Sounds great. And if you want to talk about underworld slang or overused jargon,

or if you have a question about grammar or punctuation or old family sayings or the origin of a word,

call us 1-8779-9-29-673 or send an email to words at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, my name's Lauren. I'm calling from Dallas, Texas. Well, hello, Lauren. Welcome to the program. Hi, yeah. Hi, thanks. I'm great. So I have a question about a word that my friend and I were having an argument about. Okay. And the word is vomatorium.

Vomatorium.

Yes.

And I'm a theater person, and I remember in high school learning that it had to do with the space between audiences or something like that.

And he seemed to believe that it had to do something with Greeks or Romans purging themselves after a feast.

So I was just wondering if there was any truth to that.

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