Bruce Pier wrote in MMD 000214, "While attending college studying music
I became involved in the outdoor amusement industry.  I sloughed jennys
for the old Gooding Amusement Co. and later worked for Cedar Point."

In MMD 000215 he explained, "The term 'jenny' is what carnys call a
carousel, and 'to slough' is to tear down or dismantle.  So 'sloughing
a jenny' is to dismantle the carousel to move it to the next town or
date."

I wrote to some MMDers in the UK for their observations of similar
British expressions, noting that "jargon is invented and used by proud
working folk to set themselves apart from the pedestrian masses milling
around them.  Here in the Colonies one can still hear the quaint jargon
of the riverboats and the railroad, and of course the traveling
carnival.  What's the equivalent carnival jargon in the U.K.?"


Russel Wattam replied:

"A Jenny is, or was, short for a mechanical frame for spinning cotton,
invented in the eighteenth century by James Hargreaves, and more
properly called the 'Spinning Jenny'.  In modern parlance a Jenny might
also be a generator.

"In the UK, the showman's term for erecting a ride (always called a
machine) is to 'build up', and the reverse operation is 'pulling down';
to leave the site after a fair is to 'pull off', the opposite of
'pulling on'.  I've never heard of a galloper horse being called a
Jenny in the UK; normally they are a 'mount', 'horse' or 'animal'.

"All this goes to prove the old saying that Britain and America are
two nations divided by a common language, but what a wonderful language
it is!"


Joyce Brite checked the big Oxford English Dictionary (OED):

"Sloughing usually refers to the shedding of an outer layer of skin,
especially in snakes.  The OED cited one definition as 'a feature,
quality, etc. which is thrown off,' which would be somewhat similar
to a term describing the dismantling of a carousel.

"The jenny reminded me of the spinning jenny, an 18th century spinning
machine and a relative of the spinning wheel.  Carousels have been
compared to spinning wheels many times.  (Remember the late 1960's song
'Spinning Wheel' by Blood, Sweat & Tears?)"


Julian Dyer responded:

"I reckon that's indeed the derivation of the meaning: removing the
outer layers of horses from the carousel would be 'sloughing the jenny'.

"Jenny is a female donkey.  The Spinning Jenny was a composite spinning
and stretching machine derived from an earlier device called a 'Mule'.
I guess the Jenny part came from the Mule, which in itself came from
a machine that performed two functions, spinning and stretching.

"'Two nations divided by a common language' -- a direct quote from
Oscar Wilde!  Not as true as it used to be, I feel, with the spread
of television.  When in the USA I have been interested to note how few
usages are truly different.  There's easily as much difference within
the UK as between 'standard' American and English forms!"

And that's true in America, too!

Robbie Rhodes