Guerrilla (was: Irish Stew (1823) & Madrid Stew/Tapas (1968))

[James A. Landau]

I have now had a chance to check the OED2 CD-ROM.

"Guerrilla" meaning "person(s) engaged in guerrilla warfare" is cited as
1809, which is not bad for a word invented only the year before in a foreign
language.  (Wellington: "I have recommended to the Junta to set the
Guerrillas to work towards Madrid.")

In the figurative sense, here is an 1872 citation:
"BANGOR DAILY MERCURY

    It was the mouthpiece of all the wags, all the croakers, all the
grumblers, all the envious, and all the jolly and dissatisfied persons who
chose to send it their contributions....But it was at last with the Mercury
as it is with all similar guerilla journals; after the people had been pretty
generally lampooned, they lost their relish for that kind of amusement..."
B(History of the press of Maine, ed. by Joseph Griffin, 1872.
Griffin, Joseph. 284 (i.e. 276) p. front., plates, ports. 23 cm.
Brunswick, The Press, available on-line in the Making of America database,
URL
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?type=simple&c=moa&cc=moa&sid=c328

f00a175c5e385838f8efe6392392&q1=guerilla&rgn=full%20text&firstpubl1=1800&first

publ2=1825&view=header&idno=AEZ9135.0001.001)

Bet you thought "guerrilla press" was invented in the 1960's!

And can we consider Barry Popick to be a "guerrilla etymologist"?


and an 1856 citation

"But they are engaged in a great work, and would not like to be annoyed by
the opponents of revision, in that guerilla warfare, which has been waged
against every man's reputation, whom mere rumor represented as having some
connexion with the Bible Union."  [Christian pamphlets. Vol. 7]  1 v. : ill.
; 23 cm. [United States :
s.n., 1800-1856],  available on-line in the Making of America database,  URL
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?type=simple&c=moa&cc=moa&sid=c328

f00a175c5e385838f8efe6392392&q1=guerilla&rgn=full%20text&firstpubl1=1800&first

publ2=1825&view=header&idno=BAC1479.0007.001


      - James A. Landau