"landslide" antedatings

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/7/2008 10:01 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>* geological (OED2 1856)
>
>1822 _Boston Daily Advertiser_ 3 Aug. 2/3 _Land-slide_ -- A short time
>since, the land on the brow of a hill in Hudson was severed, and about an
>acre and a half of ground, after sinking 10 or 15 feet, moved horizontally
>about two rods.
>[America's Historical Newspapers]

The same shows up in the Republican Star, 1822 Aug. 13, page 3.


>1826 _Rural Repository_ 25 Nov. 104/1 Alluding to the storms on the White
>Mountains, during which a whole family was entombed beneath a land-slide.
>[American Periodical Series]

This of course is the incident that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's
"The Ambitious Guest" (1835).  However, Hawthorne refers to it merely
as "the Slide", not as a "landslide".

Joel

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