1955 "-wise" vector; antedatings of "misty" and "Enjoy!"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The entire question becomes moot, however, when I consult the HDAS files and
> discover this:
>
> 1904 Edward W. Townsend _Sure!_ (N.Y.: Dodd, Mead) 94: De show was a winner,
> boodle-wise. [I.e., "money-wise"]

There's also this parody of baseball-ese, from _The Humming Bird_ by
Owen Johnson (1910):

http://books.google.com/books?id=TT4eAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA55
"Tyrell, who had purloined the second perch, started to ramble to
Waladersburg when Jackson stung the planet DeSoto-wise for a safety,
but our iridescent little body snatcher lassoed it and slaughtered the
rally with a staccato lunge to the midway that completed the double
demise."

Here "-wise" seems to mean "in the direction of", since DeSoto is the
name of a player. (Walader is another player's name, so "Waladersburg"
is "the neighborhood of Walader".)

I noted this usage here:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ADS-L&P=R5733


--Ben Zimmer

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