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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: phrase etymology: "swell"
Message-ID: <1294@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 17-Mar-85 05:16:15 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1294
Posted: Sun Mar 17 05:16:15 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 18-Mar-85 08:12:51 EST
References: <417@umd5.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Blue Mouse Trailer Resort (sp #9), Hellmouth, CA
Lines: 27

"Swell" has been a very flexible word over the last hundred years:

	- A stylishly dressed person, usually male;...a genteel
	  or refined person (what is that song, "We're a couple
	  of swells..."?).  [1955, becomming archaic]

	- The present meaning of the word (excellent, grand,
	  enjoyable, etc) has been colloquial since about 1880,
	  with the current popularity starting about 1920.
	  (It seems to have progressed from a grand superlative
	  -- "What a swell place you have!" -- to a good-natured
	  compliment -- "you're a swell guy" -- over time).

	- First used in print as an adverb, 1949. "I was
	  treated swell."

Unfortunately, the "Dictionary of American Slang" (Stewart
Berg Flexner) has nothing to say about "make love", though
I heard it in a radio program of the mid-late 40's, with
the older meaning intended (they had an FCC in those days, too).

It might be hard to tell at what point the meaning shifted to
a more explicitly sexual one, since it had at some point
been used with deliberate ambiguity.  Today that ambiguity is
lost, of course.
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!gam