Antedating of "Unemployment"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 7 Nov 2006, Baker, John wrote:

>        Barry has posted an 1849 cite,
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0312A&L=ADS-L&P=R1142&
> I=-3.  Fred, you once mentioned that you had submitted an 1800 cite to
> the OED, though it wasn't clear whether this was unemployment in the
> forced idleness sense.

I believe the 1800 cite I contributed to OED was in the forced idleness
sense.

Sometimes I may post antedatings that, knowingly or unknowingly to me,
have already had greater antedatings by others or by myself.  I just don't
have the time to check every antedating with the OED and the ADS-L
archives.  Even if there is already a greater antedating, the lesser
antedating may still be useful to the OED or others.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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