[Ads-l] =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9Cwolawant=E2=80=9D_?=1734 Oct., antedates OED2 1828-- (Bonus: "hurrah"?)

[Joel Berson]

... that is, “vol-au-vent”, noun.  They begged and prayed for one year more,     but it was all invain;No wolawants you’d have, you swore;     by jove you madeit plain:So sent them home to take their rest,And here’s a health unto the best;          with a fa lala.  A Song Made Upon theElection of New Magistrates for This City. Broadside ballad, 1734 [Oct.], printed by John Peter Zenger.  “wolawant” 1734 Oct., antedates OED2 “vol-au-vent” 1828--.  My source is James Alexander, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger, Printerof the New YorkWeekly Journal, edited by Stanley Nider Katz (Cambridge, Mass.: The BelknapPress of Harvard University Press, 1963), page 110.  Also in Early American Newspapers, Evans 3836 (which Ihave not examined, so I don’t know what the imprint is or if it is dated).  Livingston Rutherfurd’s John Peter Zenger: His Press, His Trial and a Bibliography of ZengerImprints (New York, Dodd, Mead, 1904), facing page 38, has aphotoreproduction of a single side containing both songs; but the sheet seemsto be cut off at the bottom and no imprint is visible (Google Books, fullview).  One of two well-known “scandalous” songs printed by Zengerto celebrate the victory of the Morrisite party over the supporters of New YorkGovernor William Cosby in the election for the New York City Common Council onSept. 29, 1734.  They were presented tothe October 1734 Grand Jury and ordered to be burned.  This song refers sarcastically to a banquet to honor Gov.Cosby that was held earlier (in May) by his supporters.  It specifically mentions “feasting” and “usquebaughand beer”.  The association of “vol-au-vent”with the Cosby supporters seems clear: the feast --> vol-au-vent, a puffpastry -->  “puff”, n., sense 2, (“a puffpastry”) and sense 7, “a person regarded as inconsequential” --> supportersof Cosby, now out of office.  Katzglosses “wolawants” as “presumably ‘fops’,” but I think the connotation to “puffs”is closer.  The spelling with w’s instead of the French v’s probably hadthe result of leading the many Dutch opponents of Cosby in New York City into the correct pronunciationwhen they joined in the singing.  Zengerhimself was a Palatine German who had immigrated to New York Statein 1710, and he had published a number of books in Dutch.  His typeset English was said to be poor, soperhaps he simply transcribed what he heard into Dutch-English.
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Bonus:  Possible "hurrah", int., 1734; interdates OED2 1716 (earliest) -- 1773.


The last verse of the other scandalous song ends with:

While they with us resolve to stand     for liberty and law,We'll drink their healths with hat in hand,     whoraa! whoraa! whoraa!

A Song Made Upon the Foregoing Occasion.  Same broadside.  Same sources (except Katz, page 111).

I note that the 1716 quotation has "Whurra!" while the 1773 has "Hurrea".

Joel

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