Barry Popik's work on "the Windy City"

[Gerald Cohen]

    I appreciate Carl J. Weber's interest in etymology and hereby
extend him  a formal welcome to our group. When I officially return
to work in two weeks, I look forward to examining his messages on
"Chicago" et al.

    Meanwhile, one clarification is in order. Barry Popik has already
unearthed most or all early attestations of "Windy City" in reference
to Chicago and posted them to ADS-L (available in the archives). A
few additional ones are contained in hard-copy material he sent to me
in pre-ADS-L days. I have compiled all that material in an article to
appear in the December 2001 issue of _Comments on Etymology_ (to be
mailed out in early January 2002). And since the material all comes
from Barry, I have listed him as the author.

     Any journalists who write on the "Windy City" might be interested
in consulting this article first; they need only ask, and it will be
sent with my compliments.

---Gerald Cohen


At 8:41 PM -0600 12/19/01, carljweber wrote:
>From: carljweber <carljweber at MSN.COM>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject:      "Windy City" & "Skunked"
>Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 20:41:40 -0600
>
>Barry Popik wrote:
><
>  Yes, it's a myth!    "Windy City" dates much earlier than the battle
>for the 1893 World's Fair, which took place in 1889-1890.  Even a
>simple check of the DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS (published in Chicago
>50 years ago) shows an 1887 citation.
>  <
>
>  Affirmative.
>The 1887 citation: "A gauzy story of an alleged anarchist dynamite
>plot from the Windy City."
>
>1873: wind work - talk discussion, planning, etc., that precedes work
>on an undertaking.
>1873: "The wind-work all done, and grading will commence about
>September first."
>
>Chicago was also "Wind Town." 1903: "The majority of Wind Town's
>baseball writers doubted the possibility of peace when the project was
>broached."