The Acid Test

The Acid Test

C. A. Asbrey

There are a number of saying we commonly use which originate in the Old West. Their use has spread not just into common usage, but across the world, carried by the movies and books which were consumed by enthusiastic fans. Don’t be surprised to hear people in Ireland ‘call shotgun’ or hear someone with a cut-crystal English accent ‘take the bulls by the horns.’ Let’s look at a few of the most common ones, a I love finding out the origins of idioms and sayings. Riding shotgun is an obvious one, based on the guard who sat beside the driver, and protected him from robbers and marauders. The phrase was oft-repeated in movies. In  the 1939 movie “Stagecoach” Marshal Curly Wilcox says, “You boys take care of the office for a couple of days. I’m going to Lordsburg with Buck. I’m gonna ride shotgun.” 

‘Taking the bull by the horns’ is about as Western as they come. Cowboys had to deal with steers, and they are powerful animals with huge horns, They could easily gore and maim a man. I don’t know how the first person found out the easiest way to bring one down was to grab them by the horns, head on. From there they could be wrangled to the ground. Whoever it was, was braver than me. 

Some contend that the phrase came from bullfighting, but it clearly worked its way from a Spanish-speaking culture to Anglophones if it did. Again, this is a phrase used in many movies.

The acid test had a meaning which extended way beyond the psychedelic LSD parties thrown by Ken Kesey in the 60s. Way before then it was related to the gold rushes which swept the USA in various waves. Prospectors looking for gold could easily test their finds in the field. Aqua regia, a mixture of one part of nitric acid and three parts of hydrochloric acid, is one of the few things which can dissolve a Noble metal, and Gold is a Noble metal. Fools Gold, sulphides which resemble gold will not react in the same way. Some micas can also be mistaken for gold. Being able to drop some acid on the nuggets proved which finds were worth hauling into town, and which weren’t.

If the materials forms gold-coloured crystals, it’s Fool’s Gold. If the gas smells like rotten eggs, it’s not gold. Real gold isn’t affected by these tests and won’t smell. Weathered mica might shine like real gold, and will not be eliminated by this test, but weighs nine times less than the real thing. 

‘Guy’ is something we take for granted when uttered by an American actor. It’s so embedded in American language that it’s her to believe it’s actually very old English. Immigrants brought the term over.  While it fossilized and fell out of use in England, it flourished in the USA. So much so that when it was used in movies, people in England though it was cool, new and novel enough to start using it again. 

It actually comes from the ploy to blow up The Houses of Parliament in the 16th century. Their leader was Guido Fawkes, known as Guy. He was caught and tortured to name others. He was sentenced to the terrible fate of of being hanged, drawn, and quartered, but weakened by torture, he died on the rope before he could be cut down while still alive. That was fortunate for him, as he was due to be cut down whilst still alive, have his entrails removed and burned in front of him. The sentence was carried out anyway as a warming to others. A tradition grew up where British people celebrated their parliament not being decimated by bonfires and fireworks on November 5th. It was traditional to burn an effigy of Fawkes on each bonfire, and it became known as ‘the guy’. ‘Guy’ then became a way to refer to any man who looked so scruffy they were a scarecrow-like effigy.  

It descended into slang, and immigrants took it to the USA. Notably, it fell out of use in the UK, but it was maintained in the USA, evolving until it was just a casual term for a man. Movies took it back across the pond, where a new audience found it novel and cool. It eventually even became a synonym for people – male or female.

Related to guy is ‘dude’ and city slickers’. Dude is thought to be short for ‘Yankee Doddle Dandy’, and generally meant much the same as a Dandy; a well-dressed man. A man whose appearance is of the upmost importance to him. In the east it meant a man who bought his style off the peg, perhaps over-doing it to the point of vulgarity. In the west it meant an ill-bred man from the east, ostentatious, man from the city, unfamiliar with the ways of the locals.

This also gave rise to the term ‘city slickers’ which meant much the same thing. The two were later conflated, meaning wealthy men coming to the Old West. Dude Ranches became a place were outsiders could experience the authentic world of the cowboy for a short time. Both ‘dude’ and ‘city slickers’ came to mean tourists or visitors. The word ‘dude’ even became a job description in the 1880s as a general man of all works on the railroads.  ‘Dude’ persisted into modern time. It evolved once more, until it now means a person of any gender, age or background.