This list of words and phrases is in no sense complete. Nor is it solely hobo slang. Many terms began in Hobohemia and were taken up in time by other groups. Other terms are found among both hobo and other groups, but in each case with a different meaning. Indeed, you will find a hobo term with one meaning on the Pacific and another on the Atlantic Seaboard, and still another in the Southland. In this book I have made no strained effort to use much of this freightyard folklore. This is opposite to the practice of many contemporary hobo writers. They think by the use of slang to add a bona fide touch to the fiction they weave. I am including this glossary largely for the information of those of you who may be interested, and for reference if you want to test some of the “authorities” in this field.
Accommodation – A local freight train. It may carry passengers.
Adam and Eve on a raft – Two fried eggs on toast. “Wreck ’em” if they are scrambled. “With their eyes open,” if not.
Alligator bait – Fried or stewed liver. Too costly now for hobos.
Anchor – A pick. Companion tool of the shovel or banjo.
Angel – A person who gives more than you expect. One who takes an interest without trying to reform you.
Angel food – Mission preaching about the Bread of Life.
Angelina – Punk or road kid acting as a hobo’s companion.
A-No-1 – A famous tramp who writes his name “on everything like J. B. King.” He writes books about his alleged adventures. Many young hobos write this monicker on water tanks, and chalk it on box cars.
Auntie – Angelina grown older.
Axle grease – Butter. Sometimes called plaster.
Baldy – Generally an old man “with a high forehead”.
Balloon – A roll of bedding carried on the back; a bindle.
Barnacle – A fellow who sticks to one job a year or more.
Banjo – A short-handled shovel. Continue reading “Glossary of Hobo Terms”
A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY
Giving dates and events of historical interest in legend, travel, literature, cultivation, plantation treatment, trading, and in the preparation and use of coffee from the earliest time to the present
900[L]—Rhazes, famous Arabian physician, is first writer to mention coffee under the name bunca or bunchum.[M]
1000[L]—Avicenna, Mahommedan physician and philosopher, is the first writer to explain the medicinal properties of the coffee bean, which he also calls bunchum.[M]
1258[L]—Sheik Omar, disciple of Sheik Schadheli, patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, by chance discovers coffee as a beverage at Ousab in Arabia.[M]
1300[L]—The coffee drink is a decoction made from roasted berries, crushed in a mortar and pestle, the powder being placed in boiling water, and the drink taken down, grounds and all.
1350[L]—Persian, Egyptian, and Turkish ewers made of pottery are first used for serving coffee.
1400–1500—Earthenware or metal coffee-roasting plates with small holes, rounded and shaped like a skimmer, come into use in Turkey and Persia over braziers. Also about this time appears the familiar Turkish cylinder coffee mill, and the original Turkish coffee boiler of metal.
1428–48—Spice grinder to stand on four legs first invented; subsequently used to grind coffee.
1454[L]—Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Aden, having discovered the virtues of the berry on a journey to Abyssinia, sanctions the use of coffee in Arabia Felix.
1470–1500—The use of coffee spreads to Mecca and Medina.
1500–1600—Shallow iron dippers with long handles and small foot-rests come into use in Bagdad and in Mesopotamia for roasting coffee.
1505[L]—The Arabs introduce the coffee plant into Ceylon.
1510—The coffee drink is introduced into Cairo.
1511—Kair Bey, governor of Mecca, after consultation with a council of lawyers, physicians, and leading citizens, issues a condemnation of coffee, and prohibits the use of the drink. Prohibition subsequently ordered revoked by the sultan of Cairo.
1517—Sultan Selim I, after conquering Egypt, brings coffee to Constantinople.
1524—The kadi of Mecca closes the public coffee houses because of disorders, but permits coffee drinking at home and in private. His successor allows them to re-open under license.
1530[L]—Coffee drinking introduced into Damascus.
1532[L]—Coffee drinking introduced into Aleppo.
1534—A religious fanatic denounces coffee in Cairo and leads a mob against the coffee houses, many of which are wrecked. The city is divided into two parties, for and against coffee; but the chief judge, after consultation with the doctors, causes coffee to be served to the meeting, drinks some himself, and thus settles the controversy.
Biblioklept 