[Ads-l] YouTubery: "I guess you never heard of a _wheelbarrel_."

Sun Apr 21 16:44:40 UTC 2019

A meaning missing from the English OLD (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/wheelbarrow <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/wheelbarrow>) and Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wheelbarrow <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wheelbarrow>) for wheelbarrow is the human wheelbarrow where one person grabs another by the legs and the person who is grabbed moves by moving their arms. This is surely common enough to be beyond metaphorical usage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCCb0wxyodM <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCCb0wxyodM>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePPp3YrZxe8 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePPp3YrZxe8>

Wheel-barrels
1. Some device on a ship

Ocean Steamships: A Popular Account of their Construction, Development, Management and Appliance
F. E. Chadwick, John H. Gould, J. D. J. Kelley, William H. Rideing, A. E. Seaton
1892 (Google dated)
https://tinyurl.com/y6eenv6j <https://tinyurl.com/y6eenv6j>

——
…. and yet, with all this beef, many a poor fellow has been maimed for life by being tossed over the wheel-barrel or jammed by the spokes when the ship swung off with sudden lurch...
——

English Patents of Inventions, Specifications: 1858, 2175 - 2255
H.M. Stationery Office
1859 (Google dated)
https://tinyurl.com/y4ln4qel <https://tinyurl.com/y4ln4qel>

——
The chain, whilst passing over the wheel barrel or drum, is held, link by link, in suitable notches….
——

2. A barrel on wheels, perhaps like the water wheel barrow in PR’s citation below, but for dirt

The Rural New-Yorker, Volume 50
Rural Publishing Company
1891
https://tinyurl.com/yxuexxu7 <https://tinyurl.com/yxuexxu7>

——
A Dirt Wheel-Barrel ….
Thee machine is simply a barrel on wheels, so nicely balanced that it will tip easily…. For many purposes a wheel barrel like this is better for farm work than the usual wheelbarrow. 
——

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 21 Apr 2019, at 05:50, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> In England in 1831, a "wheel barrel" was a barrow-mounted barrel with a perforated tube extending out from the barrel, used for watering a row of plants, in one case,  strawberries.
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30812486/new_england_farmer/
> 
> New England Farmer
> (Boston, Massachusetts)
> 28 Jan 1831, Fri  •  Page 4
> 
> An update on the 1856 apple barrel bet Garson referenced - the man from Boston won, and the apples were wheeled from Newburyport to Boston; ten thousand people reportedly gathered to greet them.
> 
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30812681/the_tennessean/
> 
> The Tennessean
> (Nashville, Tennessee)
> 16 Nov 1856, Sun  •  Page 2
> 
> 
> 
> Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36>
> 
> From: ADSGarson O'Toole
> Sent: Sunday, April 21, 02:36
> Subject: Re: YouTubery: "I guess you never heard of a _wheelbarrel_."
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: YouTubery: "I guess you never heard of a _wheelbarrel_."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The prescriptivists have the upper hand over the descriptivists in the
> world of "wheelbarrows" and "wheelbarrels". The word "wheelbarrel" is
> currently rejected as a mistake instead of being embraced as a
> variant.
> 
> A sale conducted in  Cheshire, England in 1856 listed both
> "wheelbarrels, and wheelbarrows". Perhaps the two terms referred to
> distinct items at that time and place. Alternatively, the seller
> wanted to connect with buyers by listing synonyms.
> 
> Date: March 1, 1856
> Publication: Cheshire Observer
> Location: Chester, Cheshire, England
> Article: Sale by Mr. George Felton
> Quote Page 2, Column 5
> Database: Newspapers.com
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> A great number of harrows, iron ploughs of the best make; long carts,
> tumbrel carts, splendid new wagon, first rate water carts,
> wheelbarrels, and wheelbarrows; a large quantity of gear of all
> descriptions; two sets of handsomely brassmounted ride-and-drive
> carriage harness, saddles, bridles, cloths, &c.; . . .
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Here is a fun citation from 1856 describing a politician who may be
> required to "wheel a barrel of apples on a wheel-barrow".
> 
> Date: August 7, 1856
> Newspaper: Boston Press and Post
> Newspaper Location: Boston, Massachusetts
> Article: All Sorts of Paragraphs
> Quote Page 1, Column 2
> Database: GenealogyBank
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> Who will wheel the apples? It is said that Major Poore's wager has
> been taken, namely--that if Fillmore does not receive more votes than
> Fremont, in Massachusetts he, Poore, will wheel a barrel of apples on
> a wheel-barrow from Newburyport to Boston, or, if Fillmore receives
> the most, the taker of the bet shall convey the apples in the same way
> from Boston to Newburyport.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> The following 1898 citation employed "wheelbarrow" and "wheelbarrel"
> in adjacent sentences. Yet, the two terms apparently referred to the
> same object.
> 
> Date: October 16, 1898
> Newspaper: The Cincinnati Enquirer
> Newspaper Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
> Article: Street Talk
> Quote Page 13, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> "If yer had a wheelbarrel we'd be all right," asserted the young man
> who had delivered the guitar.
> 
> "Well, there's a wheelbarrow somewhere on the place. It's back by the stable."
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
> On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 11:58 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 11:22 AM Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I'd call "wheelbarrel" an *eggcorn*, not a folk etymology.
>> 
>> 
>> Indeed, it was one of the earliest entries in the Eggcorn Database.
>> 
>> https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/10/barrel/
>> 
>> ...linking to Arnold's Language Log post:
>> 
>> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001390.html
>> 
>> ...which in turn references discussion of "wheelbarrel" on this list back
>> in Aug. 2004.
>> 
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2004-August/thread.html#39929
>> 
>> --bgz
>> 
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