/cocaine/, /simp/ for /simpleton/, /diff/ for /difference/. Others are already in perfectly good usage: /smoker/ for /smoking-car/, /diner/ for /dining-car/, /sleeper/ for /sleeping-car/, /oleo/ for /oleomargarine/, /hypo/ for /hyposulphite of soda/, /Yank/ for /Yankee/, /confab/ for /confabulation/, /memo/ for /memorandum/, /pop-concert/ for /popular-concert/. /Ad/ for /advertisement/ is struggling hard for recognition; some of its compounds, /e. g./, /ad-writer/, /want-ad/, /display-ad/, /ad-card/, /ad-rate/, /column-ad/ and /ad-man/, are already accepted in technical terminology. /Boob/ for /booby/ promises to become sound American in a few years; its synonyms are no more respectable than it is. At [Pg161] its heels is /bo/ for /hobo/, an altogether fit successor to /bum/ for /bummer/.[59] A parallel movement shows itself in the great multiplication of common abbreviations. "Americans, as a rule," says Farmer, "employ abbreviations to an extent unknown in Europe.... This trait of the American character is discernible in every department of the national life and thought."[60] /O. K./, /C. O. D./, /N. G./, /G. O. P./ (get out and push) and /P. D. Q./, are almost national hall-marks; the immigrant learns them immediately after /damn/ and /go to hell/. Thornton traces /N. G./ to 1840; /C. O. D./ and /P. D. Q./ are probably as old. As for /O. K./, it was in use so early as 1790, but it apparently did not acquire its present significance until the 20's; originally it seems to have meant "ordered recorded."[11] During the presidential campaign of 1828 Jackson's enemies, seeking to prove his illiteracy, alleged that he used it for "oll korrect." Of late the theory has been put forward that it is derived from an Indian word, /okeh/, signifying "so be it," and Dr. Woodrow Wilson is said to support this theory and to use /okeh/ in endorsing government papers, but I am unaware of the authority upon which the etymology is based. Bartlett says that the figurative use of /A No. 1/, as in /an A No. 1 man/, also originated in America, but this may not be true. There can be little doubt, however, about /T. B./ (for /tuberculosis/), /G. B./ (for /grand bounce/), /23/, /on the Q. T./, and /D. & D./ (/drunk and disorderly/). The language breeds such short forms of speech prodigiously; every trade and profession has a host of them; they are innumerable in the slang of sport.[61]