cry fowl

[George Thompson]

        [Jacob Reynolds, a pick-pocket, is arrested with $53 on him:] being caught "fowl," as the parlance is, [he] confessed he stole the pocket book and money, and stated that he was alone in the transaction -- which is not true, as two or three always go together, one to steal and the other or others to receive and conceal the property stolen.
        New-York Daily Tribune, July 15, 1841, p. 2, col. 5

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Monday, July 20, 2009 8:45 am
Subject: cry fowl
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> reported on University South (Palo Alto) News of 7/19/09:
>
>    And on Palo Alto's Town Square, "Don't cry fowl now. You had your
> chance ...
>
> Brians treats foul/fowl as a simple spelling confusion:
>    http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/foul.html
>
> and that seems reasonable to me.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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