antedating bitching (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Your New Yorker quote is an antedating of the gerund noun (I think), but
aren't the other two just verb forms of OED v.2 3.intr "to grumble,
complain" which is already cited back to 1930?

I get confused on issues like this -- it's been too long since I
diagrammed sentences and had to figure out exactly what part of speech a
particular word is.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Victor Steinbok
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 2:08 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: antedating bitching (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: antedating bitching (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> Not predating the other 2 I just posted, but confirming the general
> sentiment and context--/and/, this time, with a firm date! [GB full
view]
>
> http://goo.gl/kJigR
> The Rotarian, Sep 1945
> Now That I'm Home. By Captain Darrel L. Brady. p. 12
> > Frankly, I'm doing what we call "bitching" in the service. You
perhaps
> > are fed up with it. In the service we know it is a wholesome sign of
> > normal morale as long as the men keep "bitching." When they stop, we
> > look for trouble. So while I am at it I'll go on to air one of the
> > biggest gripes of the men doing the fighting.
>
> I really should not have pulled the trigger so fast on this bunch. I
am
> sure the date will get pushed down further by close inspection of
> newspaper archives.
>
> There is also an intriguing item from 1846, but it needs to be
> investigated further...
>
>      VS-)
>
> On 12/3/2010 2:55 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> > Further still, but completely unverified.
> >
> > http://goo.gl/RGyKU
> > Very truly ours: Letters from America's fighting men. James Waterman
Wise
> >> The second, if not descriptive is forceful--"bitching." Any kick
you
> >> have, when given to expression is "bitching." You "bitch" about
this,
> >> you "bitch" about that, so you are "bitching" again. Bitching is a
> >> good thing; nice safety valve when you are fed up. Of course when
> >> overdone it is a pain.
> >> ...
> >> Any time a soldier stops bitching, there is something wrong and
time
> >> to investigate.
> >
> > Both GB and the Harvard catalog have the date as 1943. But that does
> > not to be the date on the cover in GB, although the image is too
small
> > to tell. Worldcat gave no other records.
> >
> >     VS-)
> >
> > On 12/3/2010 2:47 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> >> New Yorker, 1945 [date confirmed intrinsically in GB, but neither
> >> date nor quote verified on paper]
> >>
> >> http://goo.gl/jEiQm
> >> [snippet only]
> >>> ... comedy entitled "Quit Your Bitchin'."
> >>
> >> The story is about "Major General Donald H. Connelly's Persian Gulf
> >> Command", if that helps verification.
> >>
> >>     VS-)
> >>
> >> On 12/3/2010 2:30 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >>> OED sense bitch v2 Derivatives "bitching" n 1953
> >>>
> >>> _California Tech_ [student newspaper of California Institute of
> >>> Technology] Vol L #23 4/14/1949 p 2 col 6
> >>>
http://caltechcampuspubs.library.caltech.edu/273/1/1949_04_14_50_23.pdf
> >>> "John Rogers, however, was at said Theatre Party with Barbie, whom
> >>> he as
> >>> fascinated *(26) with his incessant bitching about the njustices
[sic]
> >>> of this cruel world." ["*(26)" is a footnote in the original text]
> >>>
> >>> ...
>
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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