Antedating of "Hillbilly"

[Mark A. Mandel]

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
     >>>>>

I believe that a fair number of important words are found earliest as
names of racehorses.  "Skyscraper" is one example; "automation,"
amazingly, appears to be another.  And "hillbilly"?

hillbilly (OED 1900)

1896 _Wash. Post_ 13 Oct. 8 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)  Events at
St. Louis ... FIFTH RACE -- For maiden two-year-olds; five furlongs.  Hill
Billy, 8 to 1, won.

  <<<<<

Well and good, but without context how can we determine that this is the
same lexical item and not just an arbitrary name for a racehorse, like
(made-up example) "Hill Joey"?

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]

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