prissy, 1842 (?)

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 21, 2004, at 8:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: prissy, 1842 (?)
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>
> This may have nothing to do with George's question, but is worth
> reporting before I forget it.
>
> A few years ago I was alerted to a book that dealt with antebellum
> sexual attitudes in the South.  It frequently cited unpublished court
> records.  In one case, in Virginia around 1810, a rape victim
> testified that her assailant had broken into her bed chamber and
> approached her "with his dick in his hand."
>
> This would be an antedating by about 75 years of a now universally
> known term. It would also make it by origin an Americanism.
>
> Skeptical, I wrote to the Court House for a photocopy of the document,
> which soon arrived.
>
> As he was undoubtedly expected to do, the court stenographer had
> written his final draft in bold, graceful, and very legible script.
> There was absolutely no doubt: what the assailant had held in his hand
> was his "dirk."
>
> Chalk this false alarm up to someone's hasty transcription or
> proof-reading.  But I was  amused greatly when a colleague (not a
> linguist) suggested that the unmistakable "dirk" might well have been
> a slip of the pen for the putative "dick," since "'dirk' is too
> Shakespearean" [!].

I second that observation, i.e. the [!]. Remember the knife that Tarzan
wielded? Among us Southern blacks, that was a dirk. "I stobbed him/her
with my dirk" is a common blues line. BTW, FWIW, according to BET,
"stob" for "stab" is still used in living speech among black
Alabamians.

-Wilson Gray

>
> As for "prissy," I have no suggestions.
>
> JL
>
> George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: George Thompson
> Subject: prissy, 1842 (?)
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>
> The OED says that "prissy" dates from the mid 1890s, and is probably
> compounded from "prim" and "sissy".
>
> Here is an occurence of the word from 1842. The meaning isn't at all
> clear, but it is obiously used in an affirmative sense, quite the
> opposite of the post 1890s meaning. The person described is Martin Van
> Buren, who was campaigning for the presidency.
>
> "Time has been merciful to him. He looks more fresh and prissy than
> ever we saw him, excepting that his locks are a little more like those
> of his 'illustrious predecessor,' being whitened by the snows of a few
> more winters." From the New Orleans Daily Picayune, of April 12 or 15,
> 1842, perhaps citing the Natchez Free Press; as cited in Ralph M.
> Aderman & Wayne R. Kime, Advocate for America: The Life of James Kirke
> Paulding, Selingrove: Susquehanna U. Pr., 2003, p. 272 and footnote
> 18, p. 383.
>
> Van Buren was 60 in 1842, and it would seem a bit extreme to describe
> a 60-year old as "pristine", -- myself being an exception, of course
> -- but could this be a shortening of that word?
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African
> Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.
>
>
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