Puritan euphemisms

[Jonathan Lighter]

> I haven't studied colloquial, secular writing, but I suspect there wasn't
much before -- when? the 3rd quarter of the 18th century?

My impression is that colloquial writing was very rare in America before ca
1830. It was given a boost by an outbreak of relatively informal, often
humorous writing in papers like  The Spirit of the Times__.

What this seems to mean is that everyday conversation in the 18th C. must
have sounded far more "modern" in certain ways [note weaseling] than the
written record might suggest

(Of course that's always the case.)

JL

On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Puritan euphemisms
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10/23/2012 07:52 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >I took John's point to be precisely that euphemisms for
> >*blasphemous* words to avoid taking the Lord's name in vain were
> >relatively widespread, from "gadzooks" to "zounds" to whatever
> >played the role of "goshdarned" back then, but that you wouldn't
> >necessarily expect to find euphemistic substitutes for (what we
> >consider) secular obscenity in general, including "pissehouse" (or
> >"shite"?), given precisely the distinction you draw above.  Maybe
> >I'm missing something (like what the record actually shows).
>
> I can't recall encountering euphemisms for blasphemous words (or for
> that matter obscene words).  But where would one think to find them
> in 17th or 18th century American writing?  Not sermons or religious
> works, which composed the majority of published material.  Not
> newspapers.  (More likely, I feel, would be a dashed form -- but I
> don't recall any instances either.)  Court records perhaps, but
> nothing comes to mind.  Diaries?  Seems unlikely, except for someone
> like William Byrd III.  Ephemera, such as broadsides humorous or
> satirical?  Perhaps, but they're ephemeral, and my encounters have
> been occasional and with the serious and sober -- political or
> religious.  I haven't studied colloquial, secular writing, but I
> suspect there wasn't much before -- when? the 3rd quarter of the 18th
> century?
>
> Joel
>
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