Significant Antedating for "beaver" and "bearded clam"

[Sam Clements]

Am I the only one that knows the "Onion" is a satirical newspaper on the
internet the last 5 years or so?

Sam Clements
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 22:54
Subject: Re: Significant Antedating for "beaver" and "bearded clam"


> This can't be genuine -- John Jacob Aster did not arrive in America
> until March 1784  [Wikipedia]. Apparently I didn't note that fact
> when I submitted my antedating of "burger" (OED has it only from
> 1939) which is in the same issue [see ADS-L archives, 11 Oct. 2008].
>
> And by the way, any submission needs to be dated "circa 6 October,
> 1783" -- that's all the masthead says.
>
> Joel
>
> P.S.  For those really, really interested, I can provide a short,
> selective, somewhat random criticism that concludes that the editors
> of _The Onion_ did not do a very convincing job of emulating an
> 18th-century newspaper.
>
> JSB
>
>
> At 12/2/2008 05:54 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>>Caveats: NONE
>>
>>OED has 1927 for this sense (female genitalia) of beaver, and does not
>>list "bearded clam"
>>
>>"John Jacob Astor Out Looking for Beaver"  _The Onion_ October 6, 1783
>>p. 2 col 5
>>
>>"Should the enterprising GERMAN, by the Smile of good Fortune, reach the
>>fertile back woods of New Hampshire, it is likely he may find him self
>>secured to his very PUPILS in Beaver, and, we hasten to note, only good
>>Beaver at that, and None of this foul Skunk Pelt seen in those parts of
>>late. . . . He takes only a Brief Respite in the month of August, when
>>the New Found-land Territories open season on the Wild Bearded Clam."
>>
>>http://www.theonion.com/content/news/historical_archives_john_jacob
>>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>>Caveats: NONE
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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