good people (1894)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 02:09:40PM -0500, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> Jonathon Green previously found "good people" (used for an individual)
> back to 1896:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0405c&L=ads-l&P=3773
>
> Here it is in an 1894 list of New York slang terms in the Milwaukee
> Journal ("Street Slang Up To Date," reprinted from the New York
> World):
>
> -----
> 1894 _Milwaukee Journal_ 10 Feb. 6/4 "Good people" is a universal
> expression applied alike to an individual and a company. It means a
> good fellow or a crowd of good fellows.
> [19th C. US Newspapers]

Note that OED subsumes this under _people_ 2.d., which has an 1891
example (from Maitland) of "He is great people".

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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