One man's meate is another man's poyson 1618

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wasn't "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" invented (or at least popularized)by Ronald Reagan during the Nicaraguan Contra era of the '80s ?

Back then the idea was that the so-called T. was *really* an F.F. Nowadays it's usually the opposite.

JL

Rachel Shuttlesworth <rshuttle at BAMA.UA.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Rachel Shuttlesworth
Subject: One man's meate is another man's poyson 1618
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After seeing this line in a story linked to from Google's News page,
"You know the saying: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom
fighter." (http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=1817), I decided to
look at the phrase, "one man's is another man's . The
citations I found are below. The first in EEBO and the second through
ProQuest Historical Newspapers. I have not yet found when other items
besides meat and poison showed up but am still looking.
Rachel


>From The colde spring of Kinghorne Craig his admirable and new tryed
properties, so far foorth as yet are found by experience. Written by
Patrik Anderson D. of Physick. 1618

...yea & to some also, one man's meate is another man's...
...also, one man's meate is another man's poyson, a proverb co~moun...

http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:15695:14




>From New York Daily Times, Jan. 26 1853, p.4

Loss and Gain.--There is an old proverb which says: "What is one man's
meat is another man's poison." This old, musty, but true proverb, for
the last two days, has been entirely reversed at Columbian Hall, No. 281
Grand-st.as thousands of ladies can testify. What was one man's loss was
another, yes, a thousand ladies' gain.




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Dr. Rachel E. Shuttlesworth
CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow
University of Alabama Libraries
Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0266
Office: 205.348.4655/ Fax:205.348.8833
rachel.e.shuttlesworth at ua.edu

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