swing vote (1944), swing voter (1949), swing state (1952)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Today in Word Routes I talk about "battleground states" and "swing states":

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1540/
follow-up to:
http://voanews.com/specialenglish/Wordmaster/2008-09-23-voa2.cfm

"Battleground state" has been dated back to May 18, 1860, in a letter from
Schuyler Colfax to Abraham Lincoln:

---
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mal:@field(DOCID+@lit(d0269700))
I have been for a year, as perhaps you may know, for Mr. Bates' nomination.
But next to him, I have had no doubt that your name was the most hopeful,
around which to rally in the doubtful battle ground States. Your being born
in Kentucky is, of itself, a great point in Your favor.
---

This cite was found by William Safire's research assistant Elizabeth
Phillips in 2004:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/03/magazine/03ONLANGUAGE.html

"Swing state" doesn't show up until nearly a century later. Earliest cites
I've found so far are from 1952:

---
1952 _Washington Post_ 30 Jun. 6/7 The Republicans in the vital swing States
unanimously oppose the Taft candidacy.
---
1952 _Hartford Courant_ 19 Oct. A4/1 For this state [sc. Connecticut] is a
test-tube state for the nation; it is a swing state, still basically
Republican, but now close enough to either way at any time.
---

Predating "swing state" is "swing voter":

---
1949 _Mansfield (Ohio) News-Journal_ 30 Nov. 19/1 Candidates [in Australia
and New Zealand] are directing their campaign at the middle class "swing"
voters. These are the people who vote either way, and really decide who will
govern.
---

And earlier still is "swing vote":

---
1944 _Washington Post_ 28 Oct. 1/2 President Roosevelt today led a 36-car
motorcade into nearly every section of this normally Republican city in a
four-hour, 42-mile workout for the swing vote of doubtful Pennsylvania.
---

Further antedatings, anyone?


--Ben Zimmer

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