antedating bitching (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Victor Steinbok]

That's a fair assessment, although I failed to see the difference with
your 1949 citation... I'll check OED again and a couple of other
citations I pulled up but ignored in favor of these.

     VS-)

On 12/3/2010 3:57 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> 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
> ----------------------
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>> 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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