"come to Limerick" antedate and Limerick (verse) etymology suggestion (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


Slightly earlier still . . .


The Wisconsin State Register, (Portage, WI) Saturday, May 11, 1861;
Issue 8; page 1 col D
"We are ready to "come to Limerick," when 'tis necessary -- cat foul
meat, fouler bread, or any other rations known in the history of the
Mexican or Revolutionary war; but in this land of plenty, where potatoes
are selling at the low price of two shillings a bushel, and beef most
"demnition" cheap, we humbly appeal for murphies that are not half
rotten and t'other half as watery as though they had soaked eleven years
in the Dead Sea."

>
> Stephen,
>
> There's an additional early cite using Newspaperarchive--1861.
>
> 15 August 1861 _Kenosha(WI) Times_  2/6
> Advertisement
>
> "Nice Young Men" come to Limerick, or you will be brought there."
> (An advertisement requesting that all those who ate the "free lunch"
> provided by a John C. Spencer in times past to now pay up.--ed.)
>
> Sam Clements
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 10:27
> Subject: "come to Limerick" antedate and Limerick (verse)
> etymology suggestion
>
>
> > Limerick, the Irish place name, and "come to Limerick" in
> 19th-century
> > US slang, and the naming--circa 1896?--of the 5-line
> nonsense verse as
> > Limerick may all be related.
> >
> > HDAS gives three quotes with "come to Limerick." HDAS: "fr.
> Limerick,
> > town and county in Ireland; the allusion is obscure; perh.
> cf. "Will
> > You Come Down to Limerick" title of a slip jig in F.
> O'Neill The Dance
> > Music of Ireland (1907)...In phrase come to Limerick (of a
> person) to
> > behave properly; come to the point; make sense."
> >
> > The music reference is to sheet music without song words.
> Nonetheless
> > we recall the (unsubstantiated?) claims made in the 20th-century of
> > 19th-centuries parties with sung 5-line nonsense verses and
> chorus of
> > "Will you come up to Limerick" or similar words.
> >
> > The HDAS definitions of "come to Limerick" work, but, based on more
> > uses, the phrase may have also meant "come to a conclusion"
> [perhaps
> > like "do a Limerick," "make like Limerick"] or, originally,
> "settle" or "surrender."
> > Evidently, this phrase arose (or at least became
> widespread) in the US
> > Civil War and may be a reference to the earlier Civil War
> in Ireland
> > which was concluded in 1691 at Limerick. The meaning eventually
> > transfered from civil war to domestic and political disputes and
> > absurd stories, perhaps including verbal contests and
> nonsense verses.
> >
> > 1862 Feb 17 [in Western Sun March 1] Corporal Thomas B.
> Thompson [of
> > Indiana]...discovered a sesesh hid under a bush pile lying
> in a stream
> > of water, and nearly frozen--made him "come to Limerick" and show
> > where his gun was concealed.
> > Indiana Magazine of History 1934 v30 n3 p284
> >
> > 1864 Jan 8 The Badax Tigers: From Shiloh to the Surrender with the
> > 18th Wisconsin Page 221-2  Thomas P. Nanzig  2002 Dear Wife If Tom
> > Stevenson had to borrow money of me to clear him from the draft, he
> > would be pretty sure to go to war for instead of loaning
> him money to
> > keep him out I would give 25 dollars to force him into the
> army for he
> > is one of the few that I would like to see "come to Limerick."
> >
> > 1864 HDAS ..."Ho, Johnny, come to limerick."
> >
> > 1864 Quite Ready to Be Sent Somewhere: The Civil War
> Letters of Aldace
> > Freeman Walker [of Vermont]- Page 196 ed. Thomas LeDoux 2002 We are
> > getting things to running first rate now; are provided with
> bunks all
> > around, and the new men are learning to "come to Limerick." ...
> >
> > 1866 Iowa [decide to resign, after hesitating, come to the
> courthouse
> > at the stated time and] come to Limerick Daily Iowa State
> Register Des
> > Moines 6-9 v124 p2
> >
> > 1872 he will be obliged to come to Limerick in obedience Daily Iowa
> > State Register Des Moines 8-23
> >
> > 1872 I tole her the time had come to stop foolishness, an' she mus'
> > come to Limerick an' be mine
> > Macon GA Weekly Telegraph 8-2   322
> >
> > 1874 Feb 4 NYT [NY Tribune claimed "startling documents"
> but are they
> > forged?] Cincinnati Enquirer: "if...in a less respectable
> newspaper,
> > we would certainly think that it meant "Come to Limerick.'"
> >
> > 1877 HDAS Don't go about it in a sneaking [or Jesuitical] way but
> > "come to Limerick" at once with the question.
> >
> > 1887 HDAS {Civil War fiction] "I'll bring him to Limerick"...
> >
> > 1890 Omaha Daily Bee  [Neb.]
> > May 30, 1890, Page 4, Image 4
> > feels that he owns the man or has a double-action mortgage
> on his ward
> > alderman which he intends to foreclose at the next city election
> > unless the alderman comes to Limerick or passes around the "turkey."
> >
> > 1893 Come to Limerick Mr. Green!
> > The Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City [Utah) 1870-1909 March
> 08, 1893,
> > Page 4, Image 4 [LOC newspapers; political humor col.]
> >
> > !896 A. Beardsley letters
> >
> > 1896 Barry Popik ADS-L Judy, or the London serio-comic journal, [cf.
> > Murray's
> > guess on a London weekly] June 24, p615 col. 1 "Guest of
> the Hour: The G.
> > O.
> > M." "Limerick stanzas"
> >
> > 1896 he's been keeping company with her for goin' on three
> years, an'
> > I guess at last she made up her mind to bring him to Limerick [or
> > throw him out the window] Philadelphia Inquirer 9-27 v135 no 89 p32
> >
> > 1897 B. Popick Ads-l (WWW.NEWSPAPERARCHIVE.COM)  Bristol Times And
> > Mirror  Tuesday, November 09, 1897 Bristol,
> Gloucestershire... Pg. 7,
> > col. 8:
> >   Cambridge has a weakness for Limericks.  The following, emanating
> > from "The Granta," is going the round of the College rooms with
> > attendant
> > applause:--
> >      There once was a Marquis of Magdalene,...
> >
> > 1898 OED: Cantab 6 Oct., Contents, Illustrated Limericks
> >
> > 1898 OED: Notes & Queries exchange on Limerick etymology
> >
> > 1900 The Evening Times (Washington, D.C) September 18,
> 1900, Page 4,
> > Image 4 [Emery alleges that Boyle has violated the bond,
> and now he is
> > going to make him] come to Limerick [LOC]
> >
> > 1907 [a couple locked up in a room] If after a month they
> had not come
> > to Limerick they got the writ [of divorce] Lexington KY Herald 7-28
> > {and reprints]
> >
> > Stephen Goranson
> > http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
> > "Jannaeus, His Brother Absalom, and Judah the Essene"
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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