H.L. Mencken (18801956). The American Language. 1921. by
Jefferson. Charles Ledyard Norton has devoted a whole book to
their etymology and meaning;27 the number is far too large for a
list of them to be attempted here. But a few characteristic
specimens may be recalled, for example, the simple agglutinates:
omnibus-bill, banner-state, favorite-son, anxious-bench, gag-
rule, executive-session, mass-meeting, office-seeker and
straight-ticket; the humorous metaphors: pork-barrel, pie-
counter, wire-puller, land-slide, carpet-bagger, lame-duck and
on the fence; the old words put to new uses: plank, pull,
platform, machine, precinct, slate, primary, floater, repeater,
bolter, stalwart, filibuster, regular and fences; the new
coinages: gerrymander, heeler, buncombe, roorback, mugwump and
to bulldoze; the new derivatives: abolitionist, candidacy, boss-
rule, per-diem, to lobby and boodler; and the almost innumerable
verbs and verb-phrases: to knife, to split a ticket, to go up
Salt River, to bolt, to eat crow, to boodl