euphemistic use of "exempt"

[George Thompson]

Chris Philippo writes: "There had been an Exempt Fireman’s Association in
Troy, NY"

In NYC in the first half of the 19th C, the volunteer firemen were
compensated by being exempt from certain other civic duties.
***  The increase of the city, has caused an increase in the number of
engines and firemen, and the latter now constitute a large and respectable
body of citizens whose voluntary services are in some measure compensated
by exemption from serving with the militia, or serving on juries.  ***
New-York Evening Post, October 16, 1827, p. 2, col. 5, from Journal of
Commerce.
Presumably Troy had a similar policy.

GAT

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 9:22 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at mac.com> wrote:

> On Sep 17, 2014, at 9:03 AM, Geoff Nathan <an6993 at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> > In some other unionized context (such as universities) 'exempt' means
> 'not a member of the union', and therefore not subject to restrictions on
> hiring and firing ('exempt' employees are usually 'at-will', and can be
> fired without cause). Also they can be subjected to more stringent
> employment restrictions, but can also supervise others.
>
> I wondered about that.  There had been an Exempt Fireman’s Association in
> Troy, NY: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=116843416
>
> Incidentally, if Ancestry.com ever adds some advanced search options to
> findagrave, it might become possible to search just the headstone
> transcription field there.  I don’t know if there’s any citations in the
> OED presently from headstones, but that could become a possibility.
>
> Chris Philippo
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org