"to mill", to steal: 1752

[Jonathan Lighter]

George: Noted. Thanks. I found no evidence of this sense in America outside of (perhaps) Matsell.

JL

George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: George Thompson
Subject: "to mill", to steal: 1752
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The OED has "mill" as a verb meaning to rob or to steal from 1567; also
1609 (Thomas Dekker), 1621 (Ben Jonson) and others, the latest being
1818. The word isn't in HDAS with this sense at all.

>From a NYC newspaper of 1752.
Monday Night last Mr. Elsworth, an Inhabitant of this Place, being at a
Tavern in this City, had his Pocket-Book stole out of his Pocket, with
a large sum of Money in it: The same Night a Journeyman Shoemaker named
Roach, with one Kennedy, a Servant to a Shoemaker here, having been at
the same Place, on their leaving it, Roach told Kennedy he had mill'd a
Pocket-Book, and would have him go along to see what was in it: On
Examination, Roach discover'd it was full of Money, whereupon he gave
his Companion 50 s. of it to keep it secret, but Kennedy on his Return
home, growing uneasy in Mind, discover'd it to his Master, who
thereupon carried him, with what Money he had, back to the Tavern:
Kennedy was thereupon committed to Jail directly, and the next morning
Roach was taken up and committed also: The Pocket-Book with about 30 l.
of the Money was found upon him; tho' Mr. Elsworth affirms there was
180 l. in the Book.
N-Y Gazette Revived, November 27, 1752, p. 2, col.

GAT
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

"We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness,
treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our
graves." King Lear, Act 1, scene 2 (Gloucester speaking).


----- Original Message -----
From: Lynne Murphy
Date: Monday, March 19, 2001 9:45 am
Subject: Bushonics speakers strike back (fwd)

> It's not every day that 'linguistics professor' is a major role in a
> satire. Enjoy... Lynne
>
> ------
> lynnem at cogs.susx.ac.uk thought you would be interested in this
> article at
> Salon.com http://www.salon.com
> lynnem at cogs.susx.ac.uk came from IP: 139.184.30.11
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Bushonics speakers strike back
> By Tom McNichol
>
> http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/03/19/bushonics/index.html
>
> We're mad as hell and we won't be misunderestimated anymore!
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Mon Mar 19 06:43:18 2001
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> M Lynne Murphy
> Lecturer in Linguistics
> School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QH
> UK
>
> phone +44-(0)1273-678844
> fax +44-(0)1273-671320
>


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