Antedating of "Political Correctness"

[Joel S. Berson]

Ah yes -- I looked only at political correctness", not at
"politically correct", which is the phrase in Fred's finding.  So the
same distinction will be made for the former as for the latter?

Joel

At 7/22/2006 03:05 AM, you wrote:
>On Fri, Jul 21, 2006 at 02:55:33PM -0400, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> > At 7/21/2006 12:02 PM, you wrote:
> > >political correctness (OED 1979)
> > >
> > >1805 _The Witness_ (Litchfield, Conn.) 25 Sept. 3 (America's Historical
> > >Newspapers)  The constitution presumes that the people are the judges of
> > >political correctness, and has accordingly left the decision to them.
> > >
> > >Fred Shapiro
> >
> > Isn't this more a literal use of "correctness" -- here perhaps
> > meaning "correct actions by politicians" -- than the "advocacy of or
> > conformity to politically correct views; politically correct language
> > or behaviour" of the OED?  Or does "politically correct behavior"
> > encompass the 1805 use?  Or does the OED need to separate mingled senses?
>
>OED's sense (a) of _politically correct_ is 'appropriate to
>the prevailing political or social circumstances' (noted as
>not being a fixed collocation in early use); it is this sense
>being used by this and other early examples of _political
>correctness_.
>
>Jesse Sheidlower
>OED
>
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