e, a metaphor from
hunting. People who follow the hounds until the fox is caught and
killed are "in at the death." Another such expression is to "toe the
mark." We say a person is made to "toe the line" or "toe the mark"
when he or she is subjected to discipline; but it is a slang phrase,
and only good English in its literal meaning of standing with the toes
touching a line in starting a race, etc., so that all may have an
equal chance.

We say a person has "hit below the belt" if we think he has done or
said something unfair in an argument or quarrel. This is a real slang
phrase, and is only good English in the literal sense in which it is
used in boxing, where it is against the rules to "hit below the belt."
The term "up to you," by which is expressed in a slang way that the
person so addressed is expected to do something, is a slang expression
borrowed from cards.

Even from these few examples we can see that there are various degrees
in slang. A person who would be content to use the expression "toe the
line" might easily think it rather coarse to accuse an opponent of
"hitting below the belt." There comes a time when some slang almost
ceases to be slang, and though good writers will not use it in
writing, quite serious people will use it in merely speaking. It has
passed out of the stage of mere slang to become a "colloquialism."

The phrases we have quoted from present-day sport when used in a
general sense are still for the most part slang; but many phrases
taken from old sports and games, and which must have been slang in
their time, are now quite good English and even dignified style. We
speak of "wrestling with a difficulty" or "parrying a thrust" (a
metaphor taken, of course, from fencing), of "winning the palm," and
so on, all of which are not only picturesque but quite dignified
English.

A very common form of slang is what are called "clipped" words. Such
words are _gov_ for "governor," _bike_ for "bicycle," _flu_ for
"influenza," _indi_ for "indigestion," _rec_ for "recreation," _loony_
for "lunatic," _pub_ for "public house," _exam_ for "examination,"
_maths_ for "mathematics." All of these words are real slang, and most
of them are quite vulgar. There is no sign that any of them will
become good English. The most likely to survive in ordinary speech is
perhaps _exam_.

Yet we have numbers of short words which have now become the ordinary
names for certain articles, and yet which are only short fo