Lobengulous

[Mark A. Mandel]

This afternoon, while my wife and I were browsing in Antique Row in
Philadelphia, my eye was caught by the title on a framed antique colored
cartoon: "A NEW ADJECTIVE". The cartoon was from some printed document
that looked to me late 19th century American; the manager of the store
(Lunacy Antiques) could not provide any more information.

The scene is a tailor's shop; there is a placard reading
          >>>
        Jones
         ---
        Tailor
          -
        Hatter
          <<<

On the left is a portly gentleman with a dark complexion; I didn't
examine the cartoon to see to what degree, if any, the complexion was in
the print, as opposed to the after-applied color. On the right is a
stick-thin tailor bowing obsequiously. The caption reads (speaker
labels, quotation marks, capitalization, and italics as in original):

        >>>
Customer: "You'll find I measure a bit more round the waist than I did
last time you took my measure."

Tailor: "Ah, well, Sir, if I may be allowed to say so, you _are_ a
trifle more -- ah -- more _Lobengulous_ than formerly."
        <<<

The cartoon is signed "J. F. Sullivan".

A Google search for "Lobengulous" yielded no hits. Lemmatizing to
"lobengul" produced nine hits and the suggestion "Did you mean:
lobengula". These two are especially relevant; the first was duplicated
in many other places.

=====

http://www.bartleby.com/65/lo/Lobengul.html
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.  2001.

Lobengula

c.1833-94, king of Matabeleland (now in Zimbabwe). After succeeding his
father (1870), he tried to turn aside the approaches of European
colonizers. In 1888, however, under pressure from Cecil Rhodes, he ceded
his mineral rights in exchange for small payment, and Rhodes used those
concessions to form the British South Africa Company (1889). When
British gold miners began appearing, Lobengula rallied his people and in
1893 attacked the British. The results were disastrous for the Ndebele
(Matabele); Lobengula died while fleeing north.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2003 Columbia
University Press.

=====

http://csf.colorado.edu/ipe/zimbabwe_seminar/rhodes.html

(Portraits of Rhodes & King Lobengula. The King could well have been the
model for the Customer. The Tailor might have been based on Rhodes, but
I'd have to go back to look at the cartoon.)

On July 11, 1890 the Pioneer Column crossed the Shashi River and entered
Matabeleland. Their mission was to skirt the border of the Ndebele
kingdom and head north to establish a new country beyond the Hunyani
River. The whole expedition was the result of a contract between Cecil
John Rhodes and 23 year old Frank Johnson. The later agreed to organize
the occupation of Mashonaland for £87,500.

For three years the settlers in Mashonaland enjoyed relative peace, but
a clash with the armies of King Lobengula of the Ndebele was inevitable.
In July 1893, on the pretext of a relatively minor skirmish, the White
Settlers entered Matabeleland in strength. The pride of the Ndebele army
was cut down by the Maxim guns of the invaders and King Lobengula had to
flee from Bulawayo, meeting his death soon after.

=====

So it seems likely that the cartoon dates from the period 1888-1893. The
"new adjective" is evidently a nonce word. Anyone want to look further?

-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania