[Ads-l] locomotives as female

[Ben Zimmer]

If you click the "previous version" link at the top right of the
online entry for "she," you'll find it in OED2:

---
2. a. Of a ship or boat. Also (now chiefly in colloquial and dialect
use), often said of a carriage, a cannon or gun, a tool or utensil of
any kind; occas. of other things.
In quots. c 1380 and c 1475 the grammatical gender of the Fr. words
rendered may have influenced the translators.
1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 626 And thar schip thai lychtyt sone‥And scho,
that swa wes maid lycht, Raykyt slidand throw the se. c1380 Sir
Ferumb. 2182, & þoȝ þe dore were strong & huge, wiþ þe strok sche
fleȝ.
---

But in OED3, the 1375 cite has been removed, for reasons unknown.


On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 8:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> Let this be a lesson to you, Joel. I jotted down that note years ago,
> knowing that my day would come round at last. At the same time, I noted
> that "Pre-19th C. exx. tend strongly to be Scottish."
>
> Now I can't find the cite in OED either. Why not?
>
>
> No matter. No matter.
>
> Bk. III, l. 624ff. [Ed. A. M. M. Duncan, Canongate, 1997, p. 43]:
>
> "And thar schip thai lychtyt sone
> And rowyt syne with all thar mycht,
> And scho that swa wes maid lycht
> Raykyt slydand throu the se."
>
> Bk. XVII, l.399ff:
>
> "[T]hai...
> Ordaynyt a schip with full gret fer
> To cum with all hyr apparail
> Rycht to the wall for till assaill."
>
> Katie Wales, _Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English_ (Cambridge U.P.,
> 1996), p. 153, also observes that "the OED's first example of _she_ in
> co-reference with _ship_ dates from the fourteenth century and Barbour's
> poem 'The Bruce.' used by the narrator."
>
> Somebody at Oxford has some mighty tall 'splainin' to do.

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