Antedate of 'wax' = 'speak emotionally'

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 2:49 PM, sagehen <sagehen at westelcom.com> wrote:
>
> I've lost track of the query at the bottom of this thread. Is it merely the
> application of "wax(ed)" to speech, rhetoric, writing,&c., or
> the"wax(ed)"+ADV in place of the older "wax(ed)"+ADJ?   Waxing enthusiastic
> (passionate, emotional, eloquent, whatever) seems to me to have been around
> forever.

At least since 1842, according to the OED (cite for "wax eloquent").
Neal Whitman's question was about using that sense ("to speak or write
(increasingly) in the manner specified") with an adverbial complement.

Further complicating this history is the occasional example of "wax
ADV" where "wax" has the traditional sense of "grow":

----
1867 _Daily Evening Bulletin_ (San Francisco) 11 Dec. 1/3 At the
meeting on Tuesday night of the Democratic Union Mayoralty Convention,
there was a fierce contest between friends and opponents of Fernande,
which at one time had waxed so furiously that the guardians of the law
were obliged to resort to their clubs in order to restore peace.
----

--Ben Zimmer

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