"Least child"

[Wilson Gray]

Whoa! Noow that you mention it, I remember my Longview, TX-born -
trivial name drop: this town is likewise the birthplace of Matthew
McConnaughey, among other well-known Texans - grandmother also used
that expression! It's one of te reasons that the dumbing-down of
"least common denominator" is one of my pet peeves.

Needless to say, I also agree with Mark WRT the semantic development of _least_.

-Wilson

On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 5:34 PM, Charles Doyle<cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Least child"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Now that Mark mentions it:  My mother from Arkansas, (the same one I referred to earlier in this thread) would commonly say of a extraordinarily small person (either a very young one or an undergrowed one), "He's the least little thing!"
>
> --Charlie
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>>Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 17:08:28 -0400
>>From: Mark Mandel <Mark.A.Mandel at GMAIL.COM>
>
>>
>>I think of it in such phrases as about equivalent to "littlest"... OED says I'm not the only one:
>>
>>    Used as the superlative of LITTLE.
>>    A. adj.
>>    I. In concord with n. expressed or understood.
>>    1. a. Little beyond all others in size or degree; smallest; slightest; [obs.] fewest.  Not infrequently coupled with last: see LAST a. 1c.
>>
>>So "least child" = 'smallest child', from which the step to 'youngest child' is easy.
>>
>>m a m
>>
>>
>>
>>On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>
>>> The phrase had an 18th-century flavor to me, so I googled books
>>> before 1799.  Merely 5 hits (plus one with no preview available), of
>>> which just one is suggestive:
>>>
>>> The Child's companion, 1799, page 50 (full view available).
>>>
>>> "The words were so simple, that the least child knew what was meant."
>>>
>>> Apparently my taste is a little off, however.  Between 1800 and 1849
>>> inclusive, there are 395 hits.  The first 10 (of which only one
>>> appears to be a duplicate) all have the desired sense -- although
>>> sometimes not merely youngest in a family but in a town or in God's
>>> universe.
>>>
>>> Joel
>>>
>>> At 8/3/2009 04:00 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:
>>> >In conversation today, speaker from western NC, referred to
>>> >his  daughter as his "least child", meaning nothing more than the
>>> >one who was younger.
>>> >
>>> >Has anyone ever heard "least" to mean "younger" or "youngest"?
>>> >
>>> >I did not get any relevant Google hits on "least child".
>>> >
>>> >Bill Palmer
>>>
>>
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--
-Wilson
–––
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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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