slangwhanger
Jan. 12th, 2016 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordslangwhanger (SLANG-hwang-r) - n., a noisy or abusive talker or writer.
Such as, especially, a politician or political commentator. This is a colorful 19th century Americanism whose origin we actually do know: coined in 1807 by Washington Irving ("In this country every man adopts some particular slang-whanger as the standard of his judgment, and reads everything he writes") from slang, same as modern meaning + whang, Scottish version of the word that became thong in modern English -- so literally, one who lashes out with slang.
---L.
Such as, especially, a politician or political commentator. This is a colorful 19th century Americanism whose origin we actually do know: coined in 1807 by Washington Irving ("In this country every man adopts some particular slang-whanger as the standard of his judgment, and reads everything he writes") from slang, same as modern meaning + whang, Scottish version of the word that became thong in modern English -- so literally, one who lashes out with slang.
---L.
