Antedating of "Unemployment"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 10:20 PM -0500 1/23/04, Baker, John wrote:
> >         This sounds like "not in use," rather than "forced idleness"
> >(the meaning referred to in the infamous Wall Street Journal
> >article).  Is there an antedating for the "forced idleness" meaning?
>
> Right, just what I was going to say.  The 1888 OED cite involves the latter:
>
> 1888 Science XI. 192/1 The chief purpose of the inquiry was to
> ascertain..the extent of unemployment generally.

There is nothing for the "forced idleness" meaning in Eighteenth-Century
Collections Online.  As I have mentioned previously, years ago I sent an
1800 citation for the "forced idleness" sense to OED.

Fred Shapiro


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