Slight Antedating of Modern Sense of "Baseball"

[Shapiro, Fred]

This citation may not strictly be an antedating of OED sense 1.b., since this citation may refer to a game between teams of eight players each, and the OED's definition of 1.b. stipulates nine players on each side.  But I suspect that nine players is not the right place to draw the line between senses 1.a. and 1.b.

Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Shapiro, Fred [fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 9:30 PM
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Subject: Slight Antedating of Modern Sense of "Baseball"

baseball (OED, 1.b., 1845 [23 Oct.])



1845 _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_ 21 Oct. 2/3 (Newspapers.com)  A GREAT MATCH AT BASE BALL. -- This afternoon, at 2 o'clock, the New York Bass Ball Club play a match at ball with the Brooklyn Club at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken.  The interest attached to this match will attract large numbers from this and the neighboring city.



Fred Shapiro

Editor

YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)

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