Earliest Evidence for "Ghoti"

[Thomas Paikeday]

It would be useful if someone like Jesse working for Oxford included ITYM
and such abbreviations in COD's Appendix 7 (Glossary of SMS abbreviations).
BTW, what would constitute hard evidence of GBS's having used "ghoti"? HTH.
FWIW.

TMP

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jesse Sheidlower" <jester at PANIX.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: Earliest Evidence for "Ghoti"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Earliest Evidence for "Ghoti"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 11:08:30AM -0500, Fred Shapiro wrote:
> > "Ghoti" as a spelling of "fish" is usually attributed to G. B. Shaw.
> > However, the earliest examples I have seen do not mention Shaw's name,
and
> > biographies of Shaw do not give any hard evidence of his having used
this.
> > The earliest record of the "ghoti" spelling is in Finnegan's Wake
(1941),
>                                                     ^^^^^^^^^^
>
> ITYM "Finnegans".
>
> Jesse Sheidlower