Correction of OED/HDAS Dating of "Movie"

[Fred Shapiro]

HDAS cites the following as its first use of the word "movie":

1902 Jarrold _Mickey Finn_ (ad on rev. title):  After the Movies "Murine"
Your Eyes.

This citation, much earlier than anything else that has been found as far
as I know, is repeated in OED.

Sam Clements has graciously obtained a copy of the book referred to above,
_Mickey Finn's New Irish Yarns_ (1902), which he has lent to me.  There is
no advertisement on the reverse of the title page and, although there are
ads in the back of the book, none of them includes the "movie" usage.  I
think that, unless someone locates another copy of the book that does
contain the Murine ad, the OED/HDAS cite should be considered erroneous.

As I have indicated before, this leaves the following citation (from
ProQuest Historical Newspapers) as the earliest known usage of "movie":

1911 _Wash. Post_ 1 Aug. 6  I learned how to bake stuffed tomatoes at the
'movies' last night.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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