[antedating] mellerdrammer, meller

[Benjamin Zimmer]

* mellerdrammer = 'melodrama' (OED3 1918)

1859 Charles Selby _Maximums & Speciments of William Muggins_ 67 Hat
last hall war over, and fortunately for me they didn't know me as the
water eroine of the mellerdrammer. [GBS full view]
http://books.google.com/books?id=dbABAAAAQAAJ

1899 _Duluth (Minn.) News-Tribune_ 18 May 4 (cartoon caption) Dey
ain't fightin'; dey's rehearsin' a meller drammer fer de Sidewalk
Social club. [AHN]

1905 _Trenton (N.J.) Times_ 24 Feb. 4/3 Grizzled geezer gets a stab,
lots of fuss and clamor. Nephew's name is on the knife; that is
mellerdrammer. [NPA]

* meller = shortened form of "mellerdrammer" (OED3 1929, HDAS 1936)

1915 _Los Angeles Times_ 16 Feb. II6/5 Jack Gardner has a wonderfully
clever and novel idea in his melodrama travesty with motion pictures,
in which all the traditional characters of the "meller" appear in the
motion pictures and are ordered about by him.


Two other (mock-)dialectal spellings of "melodrama" not in OED:

* mellerdram (not in OED)

1884 _New York Times_ 6 July 4/3 (heading) "'Amlet" used to be a
tragedy with Mr. Kean and Mr. Macready. Mr. Fechter, Sir, has raised
it to a mellerdram.
[from The Saturday Review]

* mellerdrama (not in OED)

1896 _Minneapolis Journal_ 10 Nov. 5/5 (heading) A "mellerdrama".
Story of how a tramp saved a train. [AHN]


--Ben Zimmer

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