[Ads-l] an early cohoot (or co hoot) 1830

[Stephen Goranson]

City Gazette & Daily Commercial Advertiser, Charleston, SC, May 14, 1830, page 2, col. 1. {AmHistN]
Headline : "Domestic Slang." (My elipses in the following. The space in the first "co hoot" sic, whether intentional or not. This use adds to the early spelling rather than cahoots. And to southern US origin. It may or may not add to the co as prefix proposal. Note that Ocmulgee points to central GA, where now is Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. Whether Ocmulgee language is to be taken seriously is beyond my competence. Partnership here as marriage?)

"...Our readers will understand these euphonious jawbreakers to originate in our younger sister Georgia--she is horribly polished in her ways.
Co hoot. Copartnership (Ocmulgee dialect.)...
Think of a lady who should say--"I am about to enter into a _Cohoot_ with _Jeremiah Digs_ who is a _ramscrugious snorter_ when _breezy_.""

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

PS The May 13, 1830 issue p. 2, c. 4, "Cracker Dictionary," gives 36 items and definitions. Perhaps some antedating?


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