A Language Evolves

In Chapter VI, I am finally beginning to realize that it's super difficult for me to pay attention to line after line after line of constant meaningless dialogue. Honestly, I am forcing myself to reread each page at this point. It was in reading in this new fashion that I stumbled upon the next topic I wanted to blog about. When Jake runs into his friend, Harvey Stone, he makes small talk and catches up on things with him. Halfway through the dialogue, the two men are talking about Mencken and Harvey refers to him as a "garter snapper." (pg 50) I found this an interesting term because I understood it almost immediately. Now, we would call a garter snapper a womanizer or a player. A garter is an elasticized band worn around the leg to hold up a stocking or sock. I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what the action of snapping a garter actually refers to. This phrase stuck out to me because garter is not a word commonly used anymore, which made me think about it. I also think it is very interesting to see how language can change over time.