General remarks on clipping

9.6.7. Clippings are mutilations of words already in exist­ence. They are all characterized by the fact that they are not coined as words belonging to the standard vocab­ulary of a language. They originate as terms of a spe­cial group, in the intimacy of a milieu where a hint is sufficient to indicate the whole. Prep may be anything for the outsider, but it has specific meanings in school slang. Con is ‘conductor’ in the slang of American tramps, it is ‘convict’ in prison slang. Slang is a private language. But circumstances will always have it that words, in our case clippings, of a certain class or group pass into com­mon usage, especially so if publicity is made for them in speeches, newspapers, on the radio, on the screen etc. Not every word has the same chances, and clippings of a social­ly unimportant class or group will remain group slang. It is usually easy to trace the milieu in which a clipping was coined. In school slang originated digs (diggings), exam, grad (uate), graph (icformula), gym (nastics), math, matric (ulation), lab, mods (moderations, an examination at Oxford), prog (proctor), dorm (itory) and many others. Consols (consolidated securities), divvy (dividend), spec (ulation), tick (et = credit) and others originated in stock-exchange slang, whereas vet (eran), cap (tain), loot (lieu­tenant) and others are army slang. We can place undies, panties, nighty (=nursery), bra, pants, spats (= shop slang), ad, mag, caps, par (= printers and journalists’ slang) and undoubtedly a great many others. But there are such as can not with certainty be located. It is impossible to say whether jap (1880) originated in newspaper language or not, whereas the words movie, talkie, speakie sprang from the masses of picturegoers. Yank was coined in the days of the Declaration of Independence (c. 1778), but under what circumstances is not clear.

9.6.8. We have seen that in the course of time a good many slang clippings have found their way into StE. We are then confronted with an important question. How are the conventional, undipped forms affected by the accept­ance of their clipped counterparts? It is against the law of balanced economy in language to have two words for the same thing. In the majority of cases the solution is that the clipping keeps its slangy or colloquial tinge. Through this attachment with its sphere of origin it is isolated from the traditional word, with which, therefore, it does not properly interfere. The other solution in case of homonymy in language is that one of the words gives way to the other. The result is either the ousting of one of the words from the vocabulary, or semantic differentiation to establish the balance of power. Both ways are to be observed with English clippings. In a few cases the full words have died out, so the clippings become new roots. This is the case with chap (chapman), brandy (brandywine), mob (mobile), cad is derived from caddie, but has semantically lost its connection with it. With other clippings we are no longer aware of their original character or are slowly forgetting it. [...]