Shotgun house

[Dave Wilton]

This term has been discussed on the list before, with at least one antedating to 1903.

I found two threads, starting with http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0404B&L=ADS-L&P=R1025&I=-3 and http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509D&L=ADS-L&P=R2392&I=-3


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 6:49 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Shotgun house

> In:
> A Glossary of Colloquial and Popular French for the Use of English Readers:
>
> En coup de fusil, long and narrow – e.g., un logement en coup de fusil.
>
> No indication of this expression is antecedent to or derived from English "shotgun house".
-

I did a quick G-Books search.

I find <<"shotgun" house>> from 1915. I don't find an earlier example of
"shotgun/gunshot/gun-barrel house/apartment/flat/shack(s)"

I find <<logement en coup de fusil>> in Zola, 1877.

Note that "en coup de fusil" is glossed "long and narrow", which is not
exactly the usual full definition of "shotgun" [attrib.] etc.

-- Doug Wilson

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