Being inebriated; and a question

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/17/2009 09:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Haven't checked, but like Joel I doubt it's there - or in the 1722 version.

I checked "tar" (it's absent in 1736), but no others.  And we all
know, don't we, that the 1722 version is not the source for the 1736
version?  :-)

And a question:  In 1940 Edward Seeber counted in Franklin's
publication "90 expressions (from the entire 228) which are possibly
not of English usage".  ("Franklin's 'Drinkers Dictionary' Again."
American Speech Vol. 15, No. 1 (Feb.), 103-105.)  Can we fairly infer
that he *found* the other 138 in English usage?  I think he was
silent about that.

Joel


>JL
>
>
>
>
>On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Being inebriated
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It might be interesting to compare the 1771/1770 lists of 80 terms,
> > from The Providence Gazette and the Gentleman's Magazine, with the
> > 1736 list of 227 terms that is still erroneously referred to as
> > Benjamin Franklin's.  There are more than a few in Ben's list I don't
> > recall from 1736, including "tar on his heel".
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 8/16/2009 06:42 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake wrote:
> >
> > >I should add that the expression "tar on his heel" was mentioned in 1818
> > as
> > >a synonym for "inebriated."  This according to an updated list of ways to
> > >say "drunken"; see, for example, *The National Aegis* (Worcester, Mass.,
> > 18
> > >February 1818, p. 4) and *The Dartmouth Gazette* (Hanover, 4 March 1818,
> > p.
> > >3), both viewable in the America's Historical Newspapers database.  (In
> > >2004, Ben Zimmer posted a 1771 version of the list, which lacked "tar on
> > his
> > >heel."  See link far below.)
> > >
> > >Of course, it's anyone's guess whether 1840's "we wear tar on our heels"
> > is
> > >related to 1846's "Tar heels."
> > >
> > >-- Bonnie
> > >
> > >http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412A&L=ADS-L&P=R3894
> >
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