"Oil as spiritous drink?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue May 20 00:59:22 UTC 2008 

>The Red Sox once had a pitcher known to the bruthaz - and to everyone
>else, really - as "Oil Can," because of his propensity for getting
>oiled. The drinking, which moved a black newspaper to refer to him as
>"The Brother From Another Planet" as a consequence of his drunken
>antics on the mound

and off, IIRC. Dennis ("Oil Can") Boyd did help the Sox win the 1986
pennant--and the World Series championship in the possible world in
which...oh, never mind.

Maybe the oft-inebriated golfer John Daly III would be regarded more
affectionately if he were known as John ("Oil Can") Daly III.  Ou
sont les nicknames d'antan?

LH

>, eventually destroyed his career.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 1:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter
><wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: "Oil as spiritous drink?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  HDAS has "the joyful" meaning spiritous drink from 1835, and
>>topselling hymnsmith Isaac Watts has a metaphorical "joyful oil"
>>from at least 1769:
>>
>>   1769 Isaac Watts _The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of
>>the New Testament_ (ed. 22)  (London: T. Longman, C. & R. Ware, et
>>al.) 100: Thy Father and thy God, / Hath, without measure, shed /
>>His Spirit like a joyful oil / T' anoint thy sacred head.
>>
>>   So you get "joyful oil" = "the joyful" by 1900:
>>
>>   1900 _Annual Report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture_
>>(Indianapolis: I.S.B.A.) 1042: He will tie his horse to the hitch
>>rack and run to the nearest fire, and, perhaps, go to a joint where
>>he will take a nip of joyful oil to drive out the cold.
>>
>>   More expressive than common.  Good find, Joel.
>>
>>   JL
>>
>>  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>  Poster: Wilson Gray
>>  Subject: Re: "Oil as spiritous drink?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  I hate when that happens! Sorry about that, Joel. I should simply have
>>  given you the info and left out the extra stuff, such as I'm
>>  continuing to add, even as we speak.
>>
>>  The correct answer is: HDAS appears to have 1917 for simple "oil" as a
>>  spiritous drink. But HDAS's oldest, clearly-attested cite is only from
>>  1918. It appears to me that you have an antedating, if you have a
>>  clear 1917. But we - you and I - won't know till Jon bringeth down the
>>  tablets in his response.
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>
>>  On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 8:47 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>  Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
>>>  Subject: Re: "Oil as spiritous drink?
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  Yes I mean "alcoholic beverage" (is that different from "spiritous
>>>  drink? :-) ) -- but in the bare, without any modifier.
>>>
>>>  The quote is:
>>>
>>>  oh boss
>>>  you ask too much of us we have no flair for toil
>>>  we d rather daily dally thus-imbibing joyful oil
>>>  you can t expect a man to souse
>>>  and do work for your business house
>>>
>>>  The date is November 14, 1917.
>>>
>>>  [The hyphen probably is intended to be an em-dash; this was written
>>>  on a manual typewriter, without that character, and two extra
>>>  head-butts would not have been appreciated by Archy.]
>>>
>>>  I see that OED3 has a draft revision March 2008, for "oil n.1", with
>>>  "C2. In extended use {dag}d. Strong drink, as oil of barley, oil of
>>>  malt. Cf. sense 5. Obs.", latest citation 1881, and all quotations
>>>  are of the form "oil of ". I observe:
>>>
>>>  There are no citations of just plain "oil" (C is "Combinations and
>>>  phrasal collocations", of course).
>  >>
>>>  Which was not obsolete at least as of 1917; and I'll bet it can be
>>>  found much later.
>>>
>>>  The reference to sense 5 is mysterious; that's "5. In pl. The sector
>>>  of the commodities or stock market represented by oil or oils (now,
>>>  esp. petroleum); shares in an oil or petroleum company." (?)
>>>
>>>  Joel
>>>
>>>  At 5/17/2008 12:26 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>>>>Content-Disposition: inline
>>>>
>>>>You mean "oil" as in "ignorant-oil" = alcoholic beverage? HDAS has 1917.
>>>>
>>>>-Wilson
>>>>
>>>>On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 10:50 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>  -----------------------
>>>>  > Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>  > Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
>>>>  > Subject: "Oil as spiritous drink?
>>>>  >
>>>>
>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  >
>>>>  > When does "oil" as spiritous drink (by itself, not as "oil of
>>>>  > barley", etc.) appear? I couldn't locate this sense in OED2.
>>>>  >
>>>>  > Joel
>>>>  >
>>>>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>  >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>>>-----
>>>>  -Sam'l Clemens
>>>>
>>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>  come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  -----
>>  -Sam'l Clemens
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>  -Sam'l Clemens
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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

More information about the Ads-l mailing list