A history of the English Language

223.
The Influence of Journalism.
In the introduction and popularizing of new words journalism has been a factor of 
steadily increasing importance. Newspapers and popular magazines not only play a large 
part in spreading new locutions among the people but are themselves fertile producers of 
new words. Reporters necessarily write under pressure and have not long to search for the 
right word. In the heat of the moment they are likely as not to strike off a new expression 
or wrench the language to fit their ideas. In their effort to be interesting and racy they 
adopt an informal and colloquial style, and many of the colloquialisms current in popular 
speech find their way into writing first in the magazine and the newspaper. In this way 
we have come to 
back
a horse or a candidate, to 
boost
our community, 
comb
the woods 
for a criminal, 
hop
the Atlantic, 
oust
a politician, and 
spike
a rumor, and we speak of a 
probe,
a 
cleanup,
a business 
deal,
a 
go-between
. Sportswriters are often hard pressed to 
avoid monotony in their descriptions of similar contests day after day, and in their desire 
to be picturesque they seldom feel any scruple about introducing the latest slang in their 
The nineteenth century and after 289

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particular field of interest. Many an expression originating in the sports page has found 
its way into general use. We owe 
neck and neck
and 
out of the running
to the race track, 
and 
sidestep, down and out, straight from the shoulder,
and many other expressions to 
boxing. In America we owe 
caught napping
and 
off base
to baseball. If some of these 
locutions are older than the newspaper, there can be no question but that today much 
similar slang is given currency through this medium. Several magazines make the use of 
verbal novelties a feature of their style with puns, rhymes, coinages (
nobelity
for winners 
of a Nobel prize, 
jeerworthy
), strings of hyphenated words (from one short review: 
zillion-dollar, double-dome, dimbulbed, dog-stealing, summer-stocked
), and many other 
examples of the search for novelty.