a Gormagunt

[Jonathan Lighter]

That's great, George!

  I think if we allow for the customary journalistic exaggeration, there's little doubt that what they had was a bull Sasquatch.  They are known to have roamed the St. Lawrence region till forced westward into British Columbia.

  I hope to receive funding very soon to interview surviving members of the Pacific Coast Sasquatch community to determine the influence of their vocalizations upon dialects of North American English.  Those wishing to support this research should send cash only to me, c/o my campus office. (Large bills preferred.)

  JL



George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: George Thompson
Subject: a Gormagunt
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This highly useful word is not in the OED, nor is it in HDAS, though
in Jon Lighter's defense, until now it has not been known that the
Gormagunt once roamed North
America. The honor of lexicography has been maintained by Jonathon
Green's Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, (under the name "gormagon")
citing Capt. Grose's dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785.

So the passage below is not only the first appearance of the beast in
America, but an antedating of the knowledge of its existence by 25
years. It is also a free-range Gormagunt, not the family pet of a
lexicographer.

Whereas, a surprizing MONSTER, Was caught in the Woods of
Canada, near the River St. Lawrence, and has with great difficulty
been tamed, and brought to the House of James Elliot, at Corlaer’s
Hook. This is to inform the Publick, That it will be exhibited at
said House till the Curious are satisfied.
This MONSTER is larger than an Elephant, of a very uncommon
shape, having three Heads, eight Legs, three Fundaments, two Male
Members, and one Female Pudendum on the Rump. It is of various
Colours, very beautiful, and makes a Noise like the conjunction of two
or three Voices. It is held unlawful to kill it, and is said to live
to a great Age. The Canadians could not give it a Name, ‘till a very
old Indian Sachem said, He remembered to have seen one when he was a
boy, and his Father called it a GORMAGUNT.
N-Y Mercury, February 16, 1761, p. 2, col. 3

James Elliot's tavern is not in the Manhattan telephone book, se we
have all missed on chance to see this creature. It is reported (by
Capt. Grose) to have been a man and a woman riding a single horse.

Speaking of the unreliableness of the Early American Newspapers
database: if one searches for "gormagunt", one will find a notice
dated February 23, 1761 from Mr. Elliot, that the Gormagunt had gone
to Long Island, but not the February 16 paragraphs.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.




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