"grog"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Sep 8 15:22:25 UTC 2008


Certainly very useful, although I note that the OED has a 1770
"groggy" and a 1773 "grog" earlier than the 1781 poem (which the OED also has).

For those interested, I will probably be able to look at the Defoe
1718 Vol. II -- and might look at some other early editions -- this
week or next.

Joel

At 9/8/2008 09:49 AM, Michael Quinion wrote:
>Stephen Goranson wrote:
>
> > Whitehall Evening Post or London Intelligencer (London, England), [British
> > Library collection] Tuesday, January 31, 1749; Issue 465. p. 1 (?) col. 1
> > (from the Jamaca Gazette): "...but short Allowance of Grog was worst of
> > all..."
>
>That's an extremely helpful example, which in combination with other
>evidence suggests that the Admiral Vernon is really the correct one. He
>instituted the tradition of the diluted rum ration later called three-
>water grog in his Order to Captains No 349 in August 1740. Previously, the
>earliest verified example of "grog" we had was in a poem of 1781.
>
>
>--
>Michael Quinion
>Editor, World Wide Words
>E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
>Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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