antedating 'pad' = "lodging place"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I don't think that fits the context. (See text at Hathitrust.)

But I'm naturally suspicious of 50-year antedatings, especially when a
slang term isn't put in italics.

This case, however, is hard to explain away, particularly since the subject
is NYC low life, and OED's 1914 comez from a glossary of criminal and hobo
slang mostly collected in the Pacific NW.


JL


On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 11:50 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: antedating 'pad' = "lodging place"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jon, if you want to exclude this as not "pad, n2," 1.c, "lodging
> place," perhaps you can try:
>
> "pad, n.2.," 1.a, "A flattened bundle, mattress, or cushion of firm
> but yielding material (originally straw) on which a person may lie or
> sit."  The singular "their pad" being used in the "Rollicking Irish
> Song" instead of "their pads" in order to "rhyme" with "squad."
>
> Joel
>
> At 6/1/2014 11:36 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> >Like, OED has this from 1914, man.  But this crazy example I can't dig any
> >other way:
> >
> >1864 _The Arkansas Traveler's Songster_ (N.Y.: Dick & Fitzgerald) 54:
> >Lodgings in Pat Magaradie's   A Rollicking Irish Song   Sung by Fred May
> >... They brought in every night, to their pad,/ The boys just come o'er to
> >the shearing;/ Be the hokey! and that was the squad/ That could give the
> >victuals a tearing!
> >
> >JL
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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