SI Cover Jinx; Ants on a Log

[Jesse Sheidlower]

> RE what Jesse says below, i believe it is also OED policy to give the
> earliest dated citation that seems reliable.
>
> The evidence (that can be trusted) is the evidence.
>
> Jesse?

Quite right. We do check all the historical dictionaries,
among many other works, and we would very much hope we
didn't miss anything in something like the AND. If one
of the dictionaries had an early citation that OED felt
was _not_ reliable, we'd probably say so in a note just
so no one would think we missed it. (This does not apply
to slightly differing bibliographical standards that cause
AND's 1857 quote to appear as 1858 in OED3.)

Jesse Sheidlower
OED