"Unemployment" origin wrong in today's WALL STREET JOURNAL

[Fred Shapiro]

Yes, the Wall Street Journal is wrong that the word "unemployment" didn't
exist until the late 1800s ("unemployment" is the word, Barry, connoting a
sustained condition -- everyone admits that the word "unemployed" was
around before then).  But it is very hard to find uses of
"unemployment" before the late 1800s.  A very great historian, E.
P. Thompson, wrote in _The Making of the English Working Class_ that he
had found uses of the word earlier than the OED's (adding a snide remark
that swallows appear in the British Isles weeks before the Times reports
them, a remark that appears less snide now in view of the ease with which
I and Barry and OED3 are demolishing OED first uses).

Thompson, however, did not give any citations.  Some years ago I
contributed an 1800 citation to the OED.

Fred


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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