"hot stuff" from 1759, antedates 1889? Or too literal?
Joel S. Berson
Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Nov 16 13:37:54 UTC 2006
The army of James Wolfe, of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham,
1759, sang a drinking song called "Hot Stuff." It includes the lines:
And ye that love fighting shall soon have enough:
Wolfe commands us, my boys; we shall give them Hot Stuff ...
When the forty-seventh regiment is dashing ashore,
While bullets are whistling and cannons do roar.
From David Hackett Fischer, "Paul Revere's Ride" (1994), pages
238-239; Fischer cites [Harold] Murdock, "Earl Percy's Dinner-Table " page 69.
OED2 has "hot stuff. a. A person or thing out of the ordinary run,
something of surpassing excellence or merit; sometimes with
implication of moral censure; also, specif., a woman reputed to be
highly sexed." Earliest citation 1889.
While this quote does not have sexual overtones, it seems to suggest
the 47th was "[some]thing out of the ordinary". Or does it simply
mean hot bullets, and is therefore not useful as an antedating of the phrase?
Joel
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