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

Mon Jan 12 18:13:51 UTC 2009

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I believe the good Mr. Gray is correct.  It appears, at first glance, to be "cat", but when biggified up, it is probably originally "eat", and the microfilm/scanning process has erred.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 11:24 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "come to Limerick" antedate and Limerick (verse)
> etymology suggestion (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "come to Limerick" antedate and Limerick
> (verse) etymology
>               suggestion (UNCLASSIFIED)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Could that "... *cat* foul food ..." be "... *eat* foul food ..."?
>
> -Wilson
> â€“â€“â€“
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
> <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> > Subject:      Re: "come to Limerick" antedate and Limerick
> (verse) etymology
> >              suggestion (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > 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
> >>
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> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
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