Words: Infanticipate, ital.

Christopher Hawtree
Tuesday 24 November 1998 01:02 GMT
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NATURALLY, THE new Oxford Dictionary of Slang includes a section on pregnancy, with such phrases as "up the duff", "in pig" and "in the spud line" - but not the nimbler infanticipate.

The American columnist Walter Winchell wrote millions of words but, even in his lifetime, this mover and shaker was forgotten, although he is now the subject of an HBO movie and perhaps one by Martin Scorsese. Still, one word is more than most leave behind - within a month he got infanticipate and infanticipation into print in Baltimore in 1934 - and his gaudy legacy also includes oomph, phut, weld, separate tepees, main stem and scram. These survive, and infanticipate surely deserves a revival.

Fittingly, Winchell was always found in the Stork Club.

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