Knickerbockers

[George Thompson]

I was surprised to notice that the earliest that the OED has for this
word as meaning a generic New Yorker was 1848.

        A band of music immediately struck up a lively air, and the
proprietor of the Flag-Staff, a genuine old Knickerbocker, threw up
rockets from the top of this building in honor of the Club's success.
        New-York Daily Advertiser, November 13, 1820, p. 2, cols. 1-2
The club referred to was the Knickerbocker Club, a rowing club, which
had won a boat race; its boat had been built by an American, the rival
boat by an English immigrant.

        KNICKERBOCKER LIVERY STABLES.
        New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, April 25, 1823, p. 3,
col. 3  Caption to an ad.

        The Knickerbockers on the Fourth.  ***  It [a booth selling
food] will be highly decorated and furnished with every thing capable
of making the Knicks smack their lips.
        Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, July 2, 1830, p. 2, col.
2.  Note also the abbreviation of Knickerbocker to Knick.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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