Reflections on OED's "rum"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/24/2011 02:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>It's just too hard to keep track of this stuff.
>
>The brain is too small.

Just limit your scope -- to, say, alcoholic drinks.  (I generally
limit mine to various topical subsets of the long 18th century.)

Joel


>JL
>
>On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 2:05 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:      Re: OED's "rum" -- perhaps 1651?; and its misattributions to
> >              "Franklin's" Drinkers Dictionary
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > The "perhaps 1651" in the Subject line is due to my carelessness.  It
> > should have been deleted, since the 1651 quotation is for
> > "rumbullion" -- and in the OED.
> >
> > JB
> >
> > At 3/24/2011 02:00 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> > >In the latest OED newsletter I find --
> > >
> > >A)  an article on rum, saying:
> > >
> > >"The word <http://oed.com/view/Entry/168746>rum is first recorded in
> > >1654 in the Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, where it is
> > >mentioned along with another of its names
> > ><http://oed.com/view/Entry/103374>kill-devil:
> > >        Berbados Liquors, commonly called Rum, Kill Deuill, or the like"
> > >
> > >Has anyone looked into the early records of Massachusetts or
> > >Boston?  Much the more active port at the time, I'm sure, than
> > >Saybrook.  (The Colony of Connecticut did not merge with New Haven
> > >until 1665.)
> > >
> > >
> > >B)  under Latest update / Figures of speech:
> > >
> > >"The vocabulary of drunkenness is immense, and has been since at
> > >least the time of the famous Drinker's Dictionary (1737) in Benjamin
> > >Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette. To that vast lexicon we now add ..."
> > >
> > >But every word or expression in Franklin's dictionary was published 6
> > >months earlier, in the New England Weekly Journal of July 6,
> > >1736.  See "The Source for Benjamin Franklin's 'The Drinkers
> > >Dictionary' ...", _American Speech_, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Summer 2006), by
> > >... moi.  The OED's quotations from "Franklin's" Drinkers Dictionary
> > >are under dagged, king['s English] (both interdatings), and fence and
> > >Virginia (earliest quote for "Virginia fence").
> > >
> > >Joel
> > >
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>
>
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