Richard (alias "Long Dick") Chasmore

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 30, 2011, at 3:54 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Not only is there no reason to suspect an antedating, "long" used to mean
> tall.
>
> As in Long John Silver.
>
> JL

Not to be confused with Long Dong Silver.

LH

> On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Richard (alias "Long Dick") Chasmore
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> To my 21st-century eyes, the following is indelicate (the OED calls
>> it "coarse"), but who knows what it meant in 1656?
>>
>> "In both [letters] I presented you with a Narritue of my proceeding
>> with one Rich: Chasmore (alias Long Dick) lately of Pawtuxet. He was
>> infamous for Buggerie, 2 Indians of Pawtuxet affirming [th]t they saw
>> him in [th]e Act the one in [th]e Winter the other in [th]e Spring."  p. 6.
>>
>> The Buggerie was committed "one [i.e., on] his heifer".  p. 3.
>>
>> From a letter dated "Providence 1. 10. 56 (so calld)".  [1656;
>> probably December (10th month of the Old Style year), but perhaps October.]
>>
>> In Bradford Fuller Swan, _The Case of Richard Chasmore alias Long
>> Dick_.  Providence: Printed for the Society [of Colonial Wars in the
>> State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations], Dec. 30, 1944.
>>
>> The letter was written by ... Roger Williams.
>>
>> ? Antedates OED "Dick, n.1""  "3.b. The penis. coarse", 1891
>> (Farmer's _Slang_), and then 1929?  Well, probably not.
>>
>> Joel
>>
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>
>
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> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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