Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"

[Nathaniel Sharpe]

Going off Jon's suggestion, I did a search of contemporary Oklahoma
papers and came up with these 1916 instances of the "illegal kind:"

Date: Wednesday, August 9, 1916  Paper: Tulsa World (Tulsa, OK)  Volume:
XI  Issue: 280  Page: 1, Tells of Shooting Osage "High Jack"
(GenealogyBank.com)
According to a story told by R. W. Smith, an oil man of this city, there
will be one less "high-jack" to contend with in the Osage hills for a
time at least, as a result of his marksmanship, displayed in a pitched
battle on the old ridge road late Sunday afternoon.
Smith says he was showing some of his friends a lease near Keystone and
was returning to Tula when he was confronted by a lone highwayman who
commanded Smith and his party to "stick-em up."

Date: Saturday, April 1, 1916  Paper: Tulsa World (Tulsa, OK)  Volume:
XI  Issue: 169  Page: Four, The Man About Town (GenealogyBank.com)
Knowing their immense wealth, pickpockets would immediately high-jack
the whole crowd.


Nat

On 2/11/2013 7:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Have you tried "high-jack/ing/er"?
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 7:56 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Feb 11, 2013, at 7:42 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>
>>> hijack, hijacking (OED 1923)
>>>
>>> 1918 _Miami District Daily News_ (Miami, Oklahoma) 19 May 4 (America's
>> Historical Newspapers)  Mulcting four soldiers of $35 by the Joplin
>> authorities might be termed legalized "Hijacking."
>> ...which certainly suggests the illegal kind has already been widely known
>> by then
>>
>> LH
>>
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