_Slang Expressions._--It would be curious to investigate farther how some
odd forms of expression of this kind have crept into, if not the English
language, at least into every-day parlance; and by _what classes of men_
they have been introduced. I do not of course mean the vile _argot_, or St.
Giles' {618} Greek, prevalent among housebreakers and pick-pockets; though
a great deal of that is traceable to the Rommany or gipsy language, and
other sufficiently odd sources: but I allude more particularly to phrases
used by even educated men--such as "a regular mull," "bosh," "just the
cheese," &c. The first has already been proved an importation from our
Anglo-Indian friends in the pages of "N. & Q."; and I have been informed
that the other two are also exotics from the land of the Qui-Hies. _Bosh_,
used by us in the sense of "nonsense," "rubbish," is a Persian word,
meaning "dirt" and _cheese_, a corruption of a Hindostani word denoting
"thing:" which is exactly the sense of the expression I have quoted. "Just
the cheese," "quite the cheese," _i. e._ just the thing I require, quite
_comme il faut_, &c.
Probably some of your correspondents could furnish other examples.