In all cases the object of slang is to express an idea in a more vigorous,
piquant and terse manner than standard usage ordinarily admits. A school
girl, when she wants to praise a baby, exclaims: "Oh, isn't he awfully
cute!" To say that he is very nice would be too weak a way to express her
admiration. When a handsome girl appears on the street an enthusiastic
masculine admirer, to express his appreciation of her beauty, tells you:
"She is a peach, a bird, a cuckoo," any of which accentuates his
estimation of the young lady and is much more emphatic than saying: "She
is a beautiful girl," "a handsome maiden," or "lovely young woman."

When a politician defeats his rival he will tell you "it was a cinch," he
had a "walk-over," to impress you how easy it was to gain the victory.

Some slang expressions are of the nature of metaphors and are highly
figurative. Such are "to pass in your checks," "to hold up," "to pull the
wool over your eyes," "to talk through your hat," "to fire out," "to go
back on," "to make yourself solid with," "to have a jag on," "to be
loaded," "to freeze on to," "to bark up the wrong tree," "don't monkey
with the buzz-saw," and "in the soup." Most slang had a bad origin. The
greater part originated in the cant of thieves' Latin, but it broke away
from this cant of malefactors in time and gradually evolved itself from
its unsavory past until it developed into a current form of expressive
speech. Some slang, however, can trace its origin back to very
respectable sources.

"Stolen fruits are sweet" may be traced to the Bible in sentiment.
Proverbs, ix:17 has it: "Stolen waters are sweet." "What are you giving
me," supposed to be a thorough Americanism, is based upon Genesis,
xxxviii:16. The common slang, "a bad man," in referring to Western