Sky scraper (February 1883 for "building")

Tue Jan 24 20:49:13 UTC 2006

It's deabted if NYC or Chicago had the first "skyscraper" building. It's in  
the digitized Chicago Tribune--in a story about New York!
...
I'm adding "skyscraper" to my web page.
...
...
...
(Oxford English Dictionary)
<i>sky-scraper</i>
1. Naut. A triangular sky-sail.  
1794  Rigging & Seamanship 135 Sky-scrapers.  These sails are triangular... 
The foot spreads half of the royal yards. 1797  S. JAMES  Narr. Voy. 52 Four 
vessels hove  in sight..with..royals and skyscrapers set. 1860  Slang Dict. 217 
The light sails  which some adventurous skippers set above the royals in calm 
latitudes are  termed sky-scrapers and moon-rakers. 1883  _A.  KNOX_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-k.html#a-knox)  New Playground 113  
Studding~sails and sky-scrapers did not produce the smallest  effect.
2.  colloq.    a. A high-standing horse. [A horse named Skyscraper, sired by  
Highflyer, won the Epsom Derby in 1789: 1788 Racing  Calendar 269 Mr. Dutton 
named the D. of Bedford's  c. Skyscraper, by Highflyer. 1810 T. H. MORLAND 
Geneal. English Race Horse 147  Skyscraper mare produced Brainworm by  Buzzard. 
Ibid. 160 [Death] Skyscraper,  1807.]   
1826  _HONE_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h3.html#hone)  
Every-day Bk. II. 461 The  huntsmen were all abroad.., trotting..down the road, on 
great nine-hand  sky-scrapers. 1827  Sporting Mag. (N.S.) XX. 48, I  should like 
to see him upon one of the crack Sky-scrapers of the day.
b. A  very tall man.  
1857  Slang Dict. 19, I say, old  sky-scraper, is it cold up there?
c. A  rider on one of the high cycles formerly in use.  
1892  Daily News 7 Mar. 6/6 Riders of  the ordinary [cycle]..are few and far 
between, and are often derisively styled  ‘sky-scrapers’.
d. A tall hat  or bonnet. Obs.  
1800  _W.  SCOTT_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-s.html#w-scott)  
Let. 5 Apr. (1937) XII. 159 The  trumpets call me to swagger in a cockd 
skyscraper and sword. 1847  J. A. EAMES  Budget of Lett. 397 She gave me  a black 
silk bonnet..which stuck right up in the air after the fashion of the  old ‘sky 
scrapers’.
e.  In Baseball, Cricket, etc., a ball propelled high in the air; a  towering 
hit, a skyer.  
1866  N.Y. Herald 27 June 5/5  Goodspeed made three handsome fly catches; 
Mehl, Sweet and  Dupignac each paying their share of attention to the ‘skyscrapers
’. 1907  St. Nicholas (N.Y.) Sept. 996 A  ‘skyscraper’ throw to first. 1943  
Amer. Speech XVIII. 104 Fly  balls include the skyscraper, the cloud-buster, 
[etc.]. 1963  Times 28 Feb. 3/6 Alabaster's  skyscraper to Titmus at midwicket 
demonstrated only the extraordinary sureness  of Titmus in the field.
3. An  exaggerated or ‘tall’ story. nonce-use.  
1841  _LEVER_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-l.html#lever)  C. 
O'Malley xxxiii, My yarn  won't come so well after your sky-scrapers of  love.
4. A  high building of many stories, esp. one of those characteristic of  
American cities.  
[1883  _J.  MOSER_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-m4.html#j-moser)  
in Amer. Architect & Building News 30 June 305  The capitol building should 
always have a dome. I should raise  thereon a gigantic ‘sky-scraper’, contrary 
to all precedent in practice.] 1888  Inter-Ocean 30 Dec. 10/5 The  ‘
sky-scrapers’ of Chicago outrival anything of their kind in the world. 1891  Boston 
(Mass.) Jrnl. Nov., How the sky-scrapers  are built. 1893  Daily News 15 May 5/5 
It does  not look like a typical skyscraper, though I suppose a thirteen-story 
house is  one. 1903  O. KILDARE  My Mamie Rose xix. 288 We reach  our stoop 
in the yawning dark cañon of the skyscrapers. 1928  W. A. STARRETT Skyscrapers 
& Men who build Them i. 1 The skyscraper is the most distinctively American 
thing in the  world. 1942  Short Guide Gt. Brit. (U.S. War Dept.) 7 London has 
no skyscrapers. 1951  Manch. Guardian Weekly 19 Apr. 5 Theatres will have 
skyscrapers superimposed on them. 1976  Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 28 Nov. 20/2 Babs 
Marchant..lives 18 storeys up in an Ibrox, Glasgow,  skyscraper.
Hence sky-scrapered  a., characterized by the presence of or full of 
sky-scrapers; surrounded  by sky-scrapers; built very tall.  
1947  Ann. Reg. 1946 212 The new home  [for the U.N.] would be sky-scrapered, 
congested and expensive. 1963  Harper's Bazaar Jan. 21/2  Cagliari..is now a 
busy sky-scrapered seaport. 1963  C. L. COOPER  Black! x. 151 The skyscrapered 
 trillion-bricked dwellings. 1965  Guardian 4 Oct. 9/4 Salisbury is  brittle, 
skyscrapered, centralised, and carefully zoned into European and  African 
residential areas.
...
...
...
...
_NEW  YORK GOSSIP.; The Genus "Dude" in All His Manifestations of Gorgeous 
Idiocy.  Mild Lenten Activity in the Upper Circles of "Society." The Trumbull 
Scandal in  Its Latest Revolting Phases. New Developments in Architecture--The 
High-Building  Craze. Feeding People on Compressed Air--The Vanderbilt 
Ball--The Arion Folly.  PENITENTIAL DIVERSIONS, THE TURNBULL SCANDAL. NEW YORK 
ARCHITECTURE. OUR  SKY-SCRAPERS. FRESH AIR BY THE BARREL. MRS. VANDERBILT'S BALL. THE 
ARION FOLLY.  VARIOUS MATTERS. _ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=591651172&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=113
8133654&clientId=65882) 
CROFFUT. Chicago Daily. Feb 25, 1883. p. 9 (1 page) 
...
_NEW YORK GOSSIP._
(...)
_New Developments in Architect-_
_ure--The High-Build-_
_ing Craze._
(...)
OUR SKY-SCRAPERS.
There are more very high buildings in New York than in all the  rest of the 
country put together, and a meeting of indignant philanthropists has  been held 
to protest against the tendency and procure the passage of laws to  prohibit 
it. They were mostly old fellows, slow of speech, cautious of action,  into 
whose brains new ideas trickled slow.
(...)
It is a fact that the highest buildings in the city--the Tribune  Building, 
the Western Union Building, the Mills Building, the Borost Building,  the 
Equitable Building, Temple Court, and the twenty or thirty piles of  eight-story 
flats--have given the most perfect satisfaction, and have proved the  most 
remunerative property there is.

...
...
_AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURAL FORM OF THE FUTURE._ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=762186942&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VNa
me=HNP&TS=1138133654&clientId=65882) 
JOHN MOSER.  The American Architect and Building News (1876-1908).  Boston: 
Jun 30, 1883. Vol. 14, Iss. 392; p. 303 (3 pages) 
...
...
_CHICAGO'S  SKY-SCRAPERS.; INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THREE TALL BUILDINGS. _ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=2&did=721982812&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VIn
st=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1138133654&clientId=65882) 
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Jan 13,  1889. p. 2 (1 
page) 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org