millionaires from France [was: Wall street]

[Joel S. Berson]

When something approaches the 18th century, I
look in America's Historic Newspapers.

1795, not quite English --

National Convention -- Dec. 10.
A member demanded, that all those temporary laws
which breathe the oppressive tyranny of
Robespierre, should be immediately expunged from
the criminal code ... in consequence of which we
often saw conducted to the scaffold in the same
cart, the cook-maid, the ex-marchioness, the
financier, the rich capitalist, (_Le
Millionaire_) the barber's apprentice, the
general officer, and the sans culottes, all
condemned under the general accusation.

Columbian Centinel [Boston], 1795 March 4, page 2.  EAN.

[There are then some instances in 1834 and 1835,
taken from British publications or reported from Britain.]

Joel

At 11/24/2011 03:42 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>* *
>
>OED on "millionaire", presumably revised only a few years ago:
>
>  *A.* *n.*
>
>   A person whose assets are worth at least a million pounds (dollars,
>etc.); a person of great wealth.
>
>1800    tr. L. S. Mercier *New Picture
>Paris*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/118560> II.
>cliv. 94   The mantua-maker who had offered her silver thimble, gave more
>in fact than the millionaire.
>
>1816    Byron
>*Let.*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/118560> 23
>June (1976) V. 80   He is still worth at least 50-000 pds—being what is
>called here [*sc.* Evian] a ‘Millionaire’ that is in Francs & such
>Lilliputian coinage.
>
>1826    B. Disraeli *Vivian
>Grey*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/118560> I. i.
>ix.
>56   Were I the son of a Millionaire, or a noble, I might have all.
>
>
>
>Here is an early citation from the U. S.:
>
>Wallack will throw aside his morning gown and yellow slippers, and will be
>seen frequently among the *Millionaires* of Wall street --
>
>      Evening Star, August 4, 1838, p. 2, col. 2
>
>
>
>GAT
>
>
>--
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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