[Ads-l] "sanable" postdated

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Sun Aug 23 19:16:33 UTC 2015


The OED must be approaching the "S" words in its revision process.
Here is material from 1770, postdating "sanable" 2. That may be healed;
curable. lit. and fig.
1623   H. Cockeram Eng. Dict. i,   Sanable, which may be healed.
1656   T. Blount Glossographia   Sanable, that may be healed, curable.
1664   H. More Antidote Idolatry To Rdr. §1   That those that are sanable
or preservable from this dreadful sin of Idolatry may find the efficacy of
our Antidote.
1694   W. Westmacott Θεολοβοτονολογια 10   No Plant..doth sooner..cure all
Sanable Burnings and Scaldings.
1718   G. Hickes & R. Nelson Mem. J. Kettlewell iii. §69. 361   Whilst the
corruptions seem Sanable and admit hopes of Cure.

(This is more material than is needed, but I can't resist giving a large
chunk of his spiel.)

            Lately Arrived in This City.  Dr. Anthony Yeldall, Practitioner
in Physic and Surgery; WHO cures (by the blessing of God) all sanable
distempers, viz. He couches cataracts in the eyes, and cures all distempers
incident thereto; as also dullness of hearing.  He likewise cuts for the
stone, cures the gravel in the kidneys and bladder; and all manner of
ruptures, without pain or disturbance: He also cures the dropsy and
rheumatism, with all imaginable safety; he gives great ease in the most
violent pain of the gout.  He hath a particular safe method for the cure of
the morbus gallicus, or French disease, in all its degrees, whether simple
or virulent, without bath, stove, or mercury, whereby then patient need not
be hindered from his business, nor his condition be made known to his most
intimate acquaintance.  ***  And in the cases of cancerated breasts, limbs,
excrescences, or whatever also require amputation, he does it with all
imaginable safety.  He likewise cuts hair-lips . . . ; also lips that are
cancerated, without any deformity, and performs all other chirugical
operations.
           Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Penn.), September 13, 1770,
p. 1, col. 3


In addition to curing whatever might ail one -- if sanable, that is -- he
sold his "Medicines from a Stage; [and] by his Harangues, the odd Tricks of
his Merry-Andrew, and the surprising Feats of Activity of his little Boy,
highly diverts the People, [he] has for several Weeks past exhibited at
Brucklyn, on Long-Island" (New-York Journal; or, the General Advertiser,
August 29, 1771, p. 418 (p. 2), col. 3).

My question is: Does he take Medicare?

GAT
-- 
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..

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