Judge, 1920-01-03 · page 12 of 36
Judge — January 3, 1920 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Post Card Probioid No. 4" - Judge Magazine This page announces a reader-participation contest asking Americans to invent new slang words. The cartoon shows two women encountering a recruitment poster ("join now" with a heart symbol), satirizing how "drives" and recruitment campaigns had become ubiquitous—here absurdly applied to vocabulary creation. The contest premise: English needs fresh words to match modern life. The text references post-WWI changes (women voting, smoking, Prohibition) and invokes Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" as precedent for neologisms. Readers are challenged to coin five new words, with examples provided: "WOG" (facial blemish) and "SKINGE" (scratching sensation). The satire gently mocks how Americans eagerly participate in "drives" for everything, here extended to linguistic innovation. Winners receive prize money, with results announced in Judge's January 17th issue.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
by Cans ene Sw Axotuer Poputar “Drive’ Post Personally Card Probloid No. Conducted by Ererxat Prontow 4 Gretett Burcess RULES must be written in ink or typewritten upon Pe way of the C rd: ust be addr d Fifth Avenue, New York. answers ‘Cards JUDGE, 2 of the Competitor Answers as desired, provided st Card, s many Any Competitor may ten upon a separate sen each is wri AVE you Glossolalia? Can you speak foreign H languages you have never even heard of? If not, you will never probble this Probloid. But it’s easier than you think. If you don’t know a language, all you have to do is to make it up. Lewis Carroll made up one and called it Jabberwocky. You remember? “*T was brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wale” What could we do today without the words nd “chortle”? Not to mention “ frabjous. Other authors have done it; and people not authors at all have invented words th ve filled L. F. wants. Who first said “Jazz” and “nifty” and “flivver” and “mooch” and “hike” and “jag” and “‘mazuma,” no- body knows. But what would we do without them? The fact is, we need new words every day, some- times twice a day. ‘Times are changing, the war is over, Prohibition has come, and women vote and smoke cigarettes and go without stockings. How are we going to express all these new emotions, if we don’t have new woras to do it with? The Prize-Winning Replies to Probloid No. 3 Will be red in the Contest must be received at the an Ten Days after the date ot ent of the Probloid is made. be consi JUDC ue in which Announcem in the opinion of Gele of Five Dollars plished in JUL urgess, is the Best, will receive a Priz 7. Every other Answer pi will receive a Payment f One Dollar. ts will be published and Prizes awarded An the fourth issue Ansv ent of the { JUDGE. after that containing the Probloid. vance very reader of JupGe ought to have an idea for at least one new and necessary word. English is a grow- ing language, and we all ought to get in and help it enlarge. Why use three or four words where one will do the work at the same price, and just as well? Think of having to call an aeroplane ‘‘a machine for navig ing the air” or a grouch a “ manifestation of ill humor! One might as well travel by stage-coach. But what words are most needed of all—and what are the names of them? Words that can be put right on the job tomorrow to express our modern eight- cylinder needs? Rich, ripe, juicy words, frinstance like WOG (n.) A facial adornment, egg on the whiskers, milk on the lip, unsuspected extrinsic charm. SKINGE (n.) The sensation of scratching plaster walls with the fingernails, or stroking wet velvet, etc. What five words, dear Reader, can you coin, to make American Slang strictly up to date of going to press? That is the Probloid. Innounced in Judge for January 17th. comicbooks.com