1874: Jargon nickname for Oregon businessman
Not obviously translated for the readers was this Chinook Jargon pun in frontier-era Oregon.
“Hyas klose” was a universally known borrowing from the Jargon among English-speaking Settlers, i.e. hayas-łúsh = ‘very-good’ in early-creolized Chinuk Wawa.
GOOD FOR MONMOUTH . — Mr. “H. A. Close”
has charge of Mr. S. Friedman’s new estab-
lishmen[t] in Monmouth, and so well do the
denizens of that burg like his prices and style
of doing business, that he has already ob-
tained from them the expressive soubriquet
of “Hyas Klose.”
— from the Salem (OR) Willamette Farmer of July 18, 1874, page 11, column 4
I can’t help wondering if the man being praised thought he was being called H[igh] A[ss]!
