good people (1894)

[Wilson Gray]

You mean to say that that incredibly-annoying phrase, "he's good
people," dates back to the Creation?! "My stars alive!" as my maternal
granddad used to say.

-Wilson

On 11/7/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      good people (1894)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathon Green previously found "good people" (used for an individual)
> back to 1896:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0405c&L=ads-l&P=3773
>
> Here it is in an 1894 list of New York slang terms in the Milwaukee
> Journal ("Street Slang Up To Date," reprinted from the New York
> World):
>
> -----
> 1894 _Milwaukee Journal_ 10 Feb. 6/4 "Good people" is a universal
> expression applied alike to an individual and a company. It means a
> good fellow or a crowd of good fellows.
> [19th C. US Newspapers]
> -----
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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