10 March 1952: A guide to slang in the novel York Times magazine notes that a hipster is ‘a guy who knows his way around,’ and ‘Uncle Sugar’ is the government
If a biscuit is taken on as a canary her voice may eventually turn up on another biscuit. All this means is - according to a lexicon of Broadway slang published in the “novel York Times Magazine” - that if a girl is engaged as a singer she may construct a gramophone record. To judge from this collection Broadway slang, like other kinds of American small talk, or is as lively and pungent as ever. It has a fine Elizabethan relish for the concrete image. A telephone call is a “blast”; people who get excited “bounce; “a guy who knows his way around” is a “hipster”. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com