"tree of liberty" and "liberty tree"

[victor steinbok]

I agree, in principle, that the OED appears to have bungled the
definition here--in fact, it seems somewhat odd that they used it in
reference to something that was undoubtedly named in French, following
the earlier idea in English that the OED does not cite. I don't doubt
that the French expression translated into English "Tree of Liberty",
but how could they possibly miss the claims that the French named it
following the American expression??

I also agree that there should be a separate, but related entry for
the metaphoric meaning of "Tree of Liberty". It is a more delicate
question as to the relation of the two meanings--1a and 1b, for
instance, as opposed to 1 and 2. It is here, I suspect, that Mr.
Berson and I disagree, not in the principle that there should be two
separate entries.

VS-)

On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> At 3/7/2010 12:28 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>FYI: Google Books does contain an earlier edition of Pamela dated 1742
>>with a Bodleian Library gift bookplate. The date inscription
>>M.DCC.XLII is given on the title page of volume three which contains
>>the phrase "Boughs of the Tree of Liberty".
>
> Regardless -- this has no bearing on the OED's definition of (or
> "sense" for) and dating of
>      tree of liberty, a tree (or a pole) planted in celebration of a
> revolution or victory securing liberty (chiefly in reference to the
> French Revolution).
>
> (My only, but a severe, objection, is that the OED's definition of
> "liberty tree = tree of liberty" -- thus completely ignoring the
> American Revolution in the definitions ... but perhaps they're a
> bunch of reactionary Tory loyalists over there.)
>
> Whether the metaphoric sense of "tree of liberty", from Richardson or
> elsewhere, deserves a (separate) definition and set of quotations in
> the OED is a separate question.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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