Negative Nancies and other related musings

[Joel S. Berson]

I had not previously met these perhaps even more ancient gentlemen.

But for John Stiles, the OED does not have a definition, and the 3
instances (the first from 1671, and the other two from Blackstone)
seem all to refer to real people!  And I do not meet Richard Miles in
the OED at all.

Did these names become generic, and when?  Or, Laurence, are you
putting us on again?

Joel

At 3/20/2010 08:31 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>And the parties of the 3rd and 4th part, John Stiles and Richard Miles.

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