Antedating of Jesus H. Christ

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 26, 2014, at 7:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> 1885 _Kansas City Star_ (Apr. 29) 1: Every Man to His Trade...Capt. Jesus
> H. Christ, of Durango, has been appointed superintendent of schools of La
> Plata county, vice, Prof. Fox, deceased.
> 
> Jokes on the names of biblical characters then follow, but this doesn't
> seem to be a joke.
> 
> Anyway, it's another '85 JHC.
> 
> JL

None of these Jesus H. Christ cites were around before Marty McFly traveled back to 1885 in Back to the Future III in his DeLorean and created them, just to see if we'd notice.

LH

> 
> 
> On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 6:55 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Antedating of Jesus H. Christ
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> A quick search of Newspapers.com seems to show "Jesus H. Christ" occurring
>> =
>> in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 30, 1871, and Weekly Arizona Miner, July
>> 3=
>> 0, 1880.
>> 
>> Fred Shapiro
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>> Baker,=
>> John [JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM]
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 6:41 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Antedating of Jesus H. Christ
>> 
>> HDAS has "Jesus H. Christ" to 1892, and Fred Shapiro has antedated it to
>> 18=
>> 87 - 1888.  Here is a further antedating, to 1885.  The item below was
>> pick=
>> ed up by a number of newspapers, of which the earliest I have is from the
>> G=
>> alveston Daily News, Jan. 5, 1885, p. 9.  It cites as its source the
>> Brazos=
>> Pilot, which I do not have.  This is via Newspaper Archive.
>> 
>> "The names of Jesus and Christ sound very sacred to English-speaking
>> people=
>> , but among the Spanish both are common names--given and surnames.  At
>> Lare=
>> do, the other day, Jesus H. Christ was registered at one of the hotels.
>> We=
>> remember noting a few years ago that a Mexican named Jesus Christ had
>> been=
>> hung for horse-stealing.  Truly, there is nothing in a name."
>> 
>> The writer was under the impression that this was just an example of
>> Spanis=
>> h names, but that seems unlikely to me, and of course the writer himself
>> ha=
>> d no direct knowledge of the matter.  Note that the item's use here and in
>> =
>> other newspapers implies that the phrase was not yet common even in oral
>> us=
>> e.
>> 
>> 
>> John Baker
>> 
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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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