[Ads-l] blackbird

[Robin Hamilton]

Current HDAS 1st cite is 1832, followed by a different 1865 cite from Smyth,
_Sailor's Word Book_.

A para-dating?

2 interdatings in GDoS between 1832 and Smyth, 1867 [sic! -- cited from a
reprint text] -- both, I think UK (Bentley's Miscellany and the Morning
Chronicle).

R.

> 
>     On 18 February 2017 at 12:40 Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> 
> 
>     HDAS isn't handy, but this is either an antedating or early:
> 
>     1865 _Weekly Patriot and Union_ (Harrisburg, Pa.) (Nov. 16) 1: THE
>     BLACKBIRD...Once upon a midnight dreary.../...there stood a big buck
> nigger
>     leaning up against my door.
> 
>     JL
> 
>     --
>     "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 

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