True Blue

Mon Nov 13 22:54:29 UTC 2006

Assuming that "ram-chicken" simply means "rooster," it antedates the modern use of "chicken" in OED (1812) by about two generations.

  JL

George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
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Poster: George Thompson
Subject: Re: True Blue
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"Face" is no doubt a shortening of "brazen-face" -- incapable of
blushing -- a old image.

I notice in this screed the sentence "there is not a single Resident
in this City---Blush, if it be possible, ye Whigs of New-York, ye
Centinels of Philadelphia, ye Founts of Connecticut, and ye Ram-
Chickens of Boston---who has the Hardiness even to Insinuate"

I suppose that Ram-Chicken, which I don't find in OED, is a euphemism
for "cock"? -- a term that my ancestors weren't brazen-faced enough
to write or say.
The OED shows "rooster" for "cock" in 1772. It has "he-bird" from
1822: J. FLINT Lett. fr. Amer. 264 Rooster, or he-bird. Cock, the
male of the hen.
It doesn't have "he-biddy", but I do, from 1824:
Cock-fighting. – Not long ago I incidentally noticed a grand
Cock-fight, and set-to, over at Hoboken, and some gallant fighting on
Turkey carpets in certain houses of this city. All the cock-fighters
in town got at me for meddling with their amusements, they bristled up
their feathers; got on their gaffs, and made a tremendous effort to
crow me off the field, if I did not leave them and their He-biddies
alone. Upon reflection, I thought I had better let them alone,
because I found men of all parties interested in these sports, and you
cannot mend manners and politics at the same time. ***
National Advocate, April 9, 1824, p. 2, col. 4

Cock fighting, Police, &c. -- At an early hour, on a cold
morning last week, say about 2 o'clock, the Watchmen up Broadway were
awakened by the shrill cry of sundry cocks; alarmed at the idea of an
early dawn stealing upon them, they sprung up, rubbed their eyes, and
seized two tall lank country men, dressed in linsey-woolsey trowsers;
they had each in hand a large sack containing cocks, or he-biddies,
which ever and anon pierced the "night's dull ear," with their shrill
cries. ***
N Y National Advocate, December 29, 1824, p. 2, cols. 2 3

Mordecai Noah was editing the National Advocate in April, 1824; he got
the boot in the summer of that year, and started a new newspaper,
which he called the N Y National Advocate. the two papers competed
for about 18 months, much to the confusion of recent historians, at
least.

GAT

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "James A. Landau"
Date: Sunday, November 12, 2006 8:21 pm
Subject: True Blue

> The following extracts are from a letter dated "31st Octo. 1768",
> published in the "Supplement to the New York Journal or General
> Advertiser, No. 1351, November 24, 1768". The letter is an
> incoherent diatribe about Protestant politics which I cannot
decypher.
>
> heading on the letter is "New-Brunswick, 31st Octo. 1768"
>
> "the Letter [to which the writer is replying], in all Probability,
> was not written from Brunswick, but by some stanch True Blue in
> the City of New-York"
>
> "he insinuates, That Conventions have lately been held much more
> frequently than the used to be: The Contrary to which, especially
> in this Government, he must have been convinced of, had he been an
> Inhabitant of New Brunswick: Indeed it is difficult to conceive
> how the most flaming Independent of them all would have the Face
> to mention the frequent and numerous Meetings of the Episcopal
Clergy"
>
> "there is not a single Resident in this City---Blush, if it be
> possible, ye Whigs of New-York, ye Centinels of Philadelphia, ye
> Founts of Connecticut, and ye Ram-Chickens of Boston---who has the
> Hardiness even to Insinuate"
>
> "And if such "sprited Application", when made to the "powers at
> home," does not meet with a suitable return...as his M---y
> declares in their Favour, my Advice should be, to make Application
> to Powers which are not at home..."
>
> "And lastly, as for the Trumpet of Disaffection, which he blows at
> the Poop of his Performance..."
>
> MWCD11 gives a date of 1650 for "true blue" as an adjective and
> 1762 as a noun, so this isn't quite an antedating. It is not
> clear whether the writer means "true blue" as "someone stanch in
> his beliefs" or as a nickname for New Yorkers. If the former, and
> also considering the reference to Whigs, it would seem that
> "Centinels", "Founts", and "Ram-Chickens" are references to
> political factions rather than being geographical terms.
>
> I cannot figure out what the writer means by "Face" in the second
> quote or what is hiding in "M---y" in the fourth quote.
>
> "Poop" apparently means "end [of his Performance]" and is a
> metaphor based on the "poop deck" of a ship, which MWCD11 defines
> as "a partial deck above a ship's main afterdeck" and dates as
> 1815, so this could be an antedating.
>
> Note the inconsistent use of the hyphen in "New-York" and "New-
> Brunswick" (the latter is named once without "New").
>
> full bibliographic citation on request
>
> OT: Dennis Levinson, our County Executive, is very proud of having
> placed defibrillators in every police car in the county, thereby
> saving 25 lives so far. Shades of President Carter's "nucular",
> he consistently refers to the devices as "defibulators".
>
> - Jim Landau
>
> "white people have no souls" - Baron Munchausen
>
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