Big Top Vocab

Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen, is centered around a man's journey traveling with The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There are a lot of strange circus terms used throughout the book, beginning almost as soon as Jacob finds himself onboard the circus train, when he is referred to as a "First of May", which means that he's just started the circus. The term "First of May" is used because circuses began their seasons on the First of May, so the first of May was the first day of a new season.


Another term commonly used is roustabouts. Roustabouts are workers who perform unskilled, usually temporary work. Outside of circuses, the term is also used to refer to oil rig workers.
(more on roustabouts at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roustabout)


The menagerie tent (or just menagerie) is the tent in which all of the animals are kept. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus use the title "World's Greatest Menagerie" in their advertisements.
(To learn more about menageries & the history behind the term, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menagerie#Travelling_menageries)

Paranoid Schizophrenia, while it isn't a circus term, is something that comes up in Water For Elephants, when it is revealed that one of the characters is, in fact, a paranoid schizophrenic. This particular type of schizophrenia doesn't affect one's ability to think and function correctly - "be normal" - in every day life as greatly as other types may, because there usually aren't as many problems with memory loss, concentration, etc. but it can, unfortunately, lead to suicidal behavior. Paranoid schizophrenics are usually delusional and hear things that aren't real ("hearing voices").
(http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/paranoid-schizophrenia/DS00862)

Another term used that isn't necessarily associated with circus life is a "Jake leg". Jamaica ginger extract (or "Jake") was something that people drank when alcohol was outlawed during Prohibition. Around 1930, many people who drank Jake lost the ability to use their hands and feet. Some were still able to walk, but couldn't control the smaller muscles in their feet that bring their toes back upward, so in order to walk they would have to lift their leg, foot hanging downwards, and place their foot on the ground - toes first, then heel. The toe-heel form of walking became known as the "Jake walk", and people who suffered from this type of paralysis were said to have "Jake foot", "Jake paralysis", or "Jake leg" (the term used first and foremost in the novel).(For more information on how and when this type of paralysis first occurred, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_ginger)


Redlighting, which is pretty frequently talked about by the circus workers (especially roustabouts, and almost never performers), means to have roustabouts thrown off the moving circus train in the middle of the night to avoid having to pay them. Roustabouts who were being thrown off for a specific offense were often thrown off the train as it passed over a trestle, in order to be killed or seriously injured (in this case, it's a form of punishment, not simply a way to get rid of unnecessary workers). Either way, the circus workers are terrified of being redlighted, and word spreads quickly through the roustabouts when people are redlighted.