surveil (1884, 1896)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

In his Sunday column, Safire refers to "surveil" as "the chic new verb
back-formed from surveillance." Chic, new? OED2 says 1960, MWCD11 says
1914 (perhaps based on the cite that Fred Shapiro supplied here in
2001). Here are two 19th c. cites:

1884 _News_ (Frederick, Md.) 29 May 4/2 Every motion of Hop's was
strictly surveiled to see if he used anything outside of human muscle
and ordinary beeswax to put the fine finish on the shirts that the
Chinese are noted for.

1896 _Atlanta Constitution_ 12 Jan. 17/7 It was thought that the two
women would leave on a late train last night and the depot was closely
surveilled.
[HNP Doc ID 531336592]


--Ben Zimmer

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