Significant Antedating for "beaver" and "bearded clam"

[Joel S. Berson]

This can't be genuine -- John Jacob Aster did not arrive in America
until March 1784  [Wikipedia]. Apparently I didn't note that fact
when I submitted my antedating of "burger" (OED has it only from
1939) which is in the same issue [see ADS-L archives, 11 Oct. 2008].

And by the way, any submission needs to be dated "circa 6 October,
1783" -- that's all the masthead says.

Joel

P.S.  For those really, really interested, I can provide a short,
selective, somewhat random criticism that concludes that the editors
of _The Onion_ did not do a very convincing job of emulating an
18th-century newspaper.

JSB


At 12/2/2008 05:54 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>OED has 1927 for this sense (female genitalia) of beaver, and does not
>list "bearded clam"
>
>"John Jacob Astor Out Looking for Beaver"  _The Onion_ October 6, 1783
>p. 2 col 5
>
>"Should the enterprising GERMAN, by the Smile of good Fortune, reach the
>fertile back woods of New Hampshire, it is likely he may find him self
>secured to his very PUPILS in Beaver, and, we hasten to note, only good
>Beaver at that, and None of this foul Skunk Pelt seen in those parts of
>late. . . . He takes only a Brief Respite in the month of August, when
>the New Found-land Territories open season on the Wild Bearded Clam."
>
>http://www.theonion.com/content/news/historical_archives_john_jacob
>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org