it must be earlier

[Dan Goncharoff]

I help out a non-profit based on a 1938 vintage ocean-going oil
tanker, so I have a personal perspective on this.

Before WWII, tankers were relatively small, and accidents were news
items because of the deaths of seamen, not because of pollution
concerns. Pre-war news items talk about oil spilling, usually as a
contributor to a fire, but not about the spill itself.

DanG

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 2:18 PM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> Subject:      it must be earlier
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OED shows 1952 as earliest date for _oil spill_.
>
>
>
> I found 1950 in JSTOR (Sewage and Industrial Wastes, April p 519)
>
> And 1948 in NewspaperArchive.com (in Alton Evening Telegraph, July 2, p 12)
>
>
>
> But, I can't believe it's not earlier.
>
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