Dating of "Columbia" = America

[Dave Wilton]

Allen Walker Read's _America--Naming the Country and Its People_, Edwin
Mellen Press, 2001 has this 1660 citation from Nicholas Fuller, an English
Clergyman, p. 27:

"...is every where called America: but according to Truth, and Desert; men
should rather call it Columbina, from the magnani mous Heroe Christopher
Columbus a Genoese, who was manifestly Appointed of GOD to be the Finder out
of these Lands. But why should a learned Man make all this Dirige for
Columbus's Name! What matter is it how America be called?"

(found in Samuel Sewall, _Phaenomena quaedam Apocalyptica ad Adspectum Novi
Orbis configurata_, Boston, 1697, p. 47.

Read also says "the form 'Columbia' was developed in England in the 1740s,"
but provides no citations of use.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Joel S. Berson
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 3:30 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Q: Dating of "Columbia" = America

What is known about the earliest use of "Columbia" to refer to America?

I presume a Google search would be pointless (unless someone can
suggest a really refined search condition!), and I don't know where
else to look.  The OED omits "Columbia", I assume because it's a
place name, and has "Columbian" adj. from 1757.

Joel

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