Earlier Known Usage of "Sod"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Molly house" certainly suggests it's literal, but in this case it's difficult to be sure.

  JL

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Fred Shapiro
Subject: Re: Earlier Known Usage of "Sod"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 2 Apr 2007, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> This printing practice (if widespread) might have encouraged shortening
> in speech. Here is the earliest Old Bailey ex., from 1814 :
>
> http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/facsimiles/1810s/181407060006.html
>
> "_A_....The other man, I saw the blow coming, I stooped my head, and in stooping
> I fell. Ashton directly collared me; he called me a b - y sod, and said he would take me to the guard-house.
> "_Q._ He called you a sod; did you know what he meaned by that expression - _A_. I know now; I did not at that time. He said he would take me to the guard-house."

Maybe this 1810 citation I sent to OED some years ago is the earliest:

1810 William Beckford in Rictor Norton _Mother Clap's Molly House_ (1992)
226 Poor sods -- what a fine ordeal, what a procession, what a
pilgrimage, what a song and dance, what a rosary!

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



---------------------------------
It's here! Your new message!
Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.

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