A Dictionary of Cont..

is also still used, in a sense archaic in England,
to mean calumniate, disparage, or depreci,ate
(Like many great man, he has been slurred by
the very people he helped). The American
idiomatic expression, to cast or throw slurs at, is
the equivalent of the English to put a slur on.
slut is a dirty, slovenly woman. It is a much
stronger and more offensive word than slattern
(q.v.). Though in its ordinary use conveying
the strongest disapprobation, it is-or more
often was--like many terms of derogation,
sometimes employed affectionately (Our little
girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and plea.ses
us mightily). In America in the nineteenth
century, when dogs were much in evidence but
the word bitch considered unspeakable in mixed
company, the term was applied to the female
dog. Dog was the word for the male and slut
for the female (The dog-pup and the slut-pup.
The dog was of a dingy red color and the slut
was black). This usage was adopted in England
but never became as fixed there as in the United
States. And it may be this association that gives
the word slut today a more derogatory sense in
America than in England. In England it is
simply a strong term for a slattern. In American
use it means now primarily a woman of loose
character, being almost as condemnatory as
whore.
sly. American and English spelling differ in regard
to the comparative and superlative forms of sly.
American usage prefers slyer and slyest but
permits slier and sliest. English usage permits
slyer and slyest only.
small. See limited.
small fry. Fry are properly seed or offspring,
especially with reference to human beings. The
murderer in Macbeth calls MacdutI’s son a
young fry of treachery as he stabs him. The
word is usually employed in a collective sense
to designate a swarm, as of children or any
small animals, especially now of fish. In this
sense it is plural (What a fry of fools are here).
It is heard today chiefly in the expression small
fry, which means young or small fish or unimportant
objects or young and unimportant
persons. For the most part this is plural, as in
Steig’s cartoons, so named, which depict the
doings of young persons collectively. However,
especially humorously in direct address, it is
used in the singular; and with such precedent
as the quotation from Shakespeare given above
(if it applies solely to the one child, for several
others were killed) it cannot be very severely
condemned.
smallpox. This word has a plural form. The
singular would be pock. But today it is regularly
treated as a singular. We say it is contagious,
not they are contagious. The use of the article,
as in the smallpox, is countrified or oldfashioned.
The form smallpox is used as the
first element in a compound, as in a smallpox
vaccine.
It is a grim reminder of the former ravages
of syphilis, the pox or great pox, that this dread
disease was only the small pox.
461 smelt
smart is a word more often used, and used in more
ways, by Americans than by the English. It has
been long established in American usage in the
sense of shrewd or sharp, as of a person dealing
with others, with a distinct connotation of admiration
for such shrewdness (He’s a mighty
smart business man, Henry is!). As a synonym
for sensible it has become a vogue word (The
smart thing would be to take the ferry; you
can’t rely on the planes in this weather) that the
discriminating will eschew.
Both English and Americans use smart to
mean dashingly or effectively neat or trim in
appearance, as persons in their dress, or to
mean the socially elegant or fashionable (That’s
really smart, worn that way! All the smart set
left the city for the summer). Americans more
often than English use smart to mean impudent
(Don’t get smart with me, young man, or I’ll
slap your face), especially in speaking to
children. Smart aleck, an American term for an
obnoxiously conceited and impudent person,
especially in situations where his conceitedness
(for the term is applied almost exclusively to
males) leads him to make unwelcome amatory
overtures, is now a little old-fashioned. It is
replaced by the humorous, less disparaging,
slang term smarty pants which is applied to
young people of either sex.
smell. The past tense is smelled or smelt. The participle
is also smelled or smelt. In the United
States smelled is the preferred form for the past
tense and the participle. In Great Britain smelt
is preferred.
Smell may be followed by an adjective describing
the source of the smell, as in it smelt
so faint and it smelt so sweet and in supper
smells good. When used in this way smell is not
followed by the adverb well. We do not say it
smells well. But it is frequently used with other
adverbs, as in it smelled faintly, it smelled
sweetly. Many people find these constructions
objectionable but others, equally well educated,
do not. When used with a personal subject,
smell may be qualified by any adverb, as in I can
smell it well.
smell; stink. Stink, the good old-fashioned, established
word for a foul, disgusting, or offensive
smell, has, apparently, absorbed something of
the quality it describes and is no longer considered
a polite word. The euphemism (for
stinks remain whether stink is polite or not) is
smell, formerly a neutral word. But smell, like
most euphemisms, has suffered contagion and
unless qualified by a favorable adjective definitely
means an unpleasant smell, though not so
unpleasant a smell as a stink. The facetious
figurative use of stink to mean a row or a
protest, especially one following on the disclosure
of something disgraceful that has been
hidden, is not standard. See also odor.
smell a rat. As a term for suspecting something
to be wrong, especially something dangerous or
disgraceful that has been concealed, to smell a
rat is somewhat musty.
smelt. See smell.