to roger

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/17/2007 08:12 AM, Jon L. wrote:
>Famously appearing in America in the 18th C. diary of William Byrd
>of Virginia, to "roger" has long been Britspeak, not Yanktalk.

Byrd presumably picked this up (and, one hopes, nothing else) during
his youthful frolicks in England (although OED2 has no earlier
citation).  I wonder whether the eponym was a companion Roger randier
than William.

And presumably he did not propagate this verb into Yanktalk since it
was hidden in his Secret Diary.  (As well, he was not a Yankee.)

Joel

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