"grog" -- not Defoe

[Joel S. Berson]

Here is what seems to be the definitive answer, disproving the
Wikipedia's thesis, from someone who had quick access to ECCO. (I
would have to traipse from home in Arlington, Mass., to Cambridge and
Boston -- not too long a trip, but one that I had yet to schedule --
and now will not.)

>It's 'ginger' in the 1718 edition, ii. 304; 1720 edition, ii. 288;
>and 1741 edition, ii. 291, at least according to the digitisations
>in ECCO. NB part/dialogue numberings vary.

Correspondent's email address upon request (and permission).

Joel

At 9/8/2008 11:22 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>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

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