Shuysters and Skinners (1845)

[Roger Shuy]

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Shuysters and Skinners (1845)
>
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> On Mon, 6 Jun 2005 09:16:56 -0500, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> wrote:
>>
>> Benjamin Zimmer's spottings of early attestations are always interesting.
>> His 1845 "shuyster" below is only the second example I have of this term
>> being spelled with "-uy-."  The other example is from 1856, cited in
>> Craigie-Hulbert's _Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles._
>
> There's another cite for "shuyster" on N-archive, in a reprinted letter
> from a Civil War soldier who fought at Gettsyburg (no date given, but
> presumably 1863).  The letter was in the possession of the soldier's
> great-grandson.
>
> -----
> _Gettysburg Times_ (Pa.), Aug. 2, 1990, p. 5A, col. 2
> [Lt. Isaac Newton Durboraw:] "I did not find many of the people in the
> neighborhood at their homes, and their houses were occupied by skulkers
> and shuysters absent from their commands. When I got back to the company I
> shared out the contents of my haversack, and when we marched that night,
> it was empty."
> -----
>
>>  Also, btw, Mr. Van Witherem in the passage below is most likely a
>> fictitious name, invented to add to the humor (based on the verb
>> "wither," i.e., his words (humorously) had a withering effect on those
>> he criticized; and -em = them.) Cf. the names in the modern (fictitious)
>> lawfirm Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe.
>
> That's right.  Other names given to the "sucking" (i.e., 'budding')
> lawyers in the story are: Shearem & Fishhoek, Puffendorf, Littleton Leach,
> Blackstone Woodcock, Spoonbill, Pettimus, and Foggum.
>
>>> -----
>>> _Tioga Eagle_ (Wellsboro, Pa.), Feb. 26, 1845, p. 1, col. 3 "Festival
>>> of the Sucking Lawyers"
>>> ...
>>> Mr. Van Witherem rose to give as an irregular toast: 'The Shuysters
>>> and Skinners of the Tombs -- it is true they were the outsiders of the
>>> profession, but still as they hung to the _skirts_ of the regulars, and
>>> had been partakers of the _fleece_, he did not see how they could
>>> suffer such sharp practice to be _shorn_ of every _shred_ of the usual
>>> honors.' -- Here the president interposed and insisted that the Skinners
>>> and Shuysters had brought the profession into disgrace, and ought to be
>>> scratched out by a _bar_ sinister.
>>> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
I am somewhat amused at the spelling of shuyster. I've lived all my life
assuming that "uy" pronounced /ay/ was limited to "buy," "guy," and my
family name, Shuy. I'm not sure that I like your new found addition a whole
lot though.

Roger Shuy