Sambo -- not 1861 or 1704, but 1657
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Feb 1 00:42:08 UTC 2010
Wouldn't it have to be "There _is_too _much_ _Paddy_" in order for it
to constitute a singulare tantum?
-Wilson
On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Robin Hamilton
<robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:
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> Poster: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject: Re: Sambo -- not 1861 or 1704, but 1657
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I can't for the life of me think of examples off-hand -- something seems to
> have switched off in my brain -- but wouldn't the generic naming of the
> Scots, Irish, and Welsh based on a "typical" name date back to maybe the
> Renaissance, including a use in drama? (As in, "There are too many paddys
> on this list. <g>)
>
> The only thing I can call to mind in terms of specifics -- the general use
> of a particular name -- isn't quite parallel: the Machiavels are coming to
> town.
>
> Robin
>
>> Know what? "Sambo" may actually be the earliest ex. of this kind of
>> generi=
>> c
>> naming in English.
>>
>> Am I right?
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 8:59 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject: Re: Sambo -- not 1861 or 1704, but 1657
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>>>
>>> "with dry lips" perhaps =3D "with a dry throat"?
>>>
>>> For some reason, generic _singularia tantum_ always give me a chuckle,
>>> when used of people. I've never forgotten the similar generic use of
>>> _Comrade_ "German by us hamburgers, a half-century ago. It covered any
>>> random numbers of Germans from a single individual to the entire
>>> nation.
>>>
>>> Of course, we'd a said, "If ..., Comrade _ be (steady [st^dI]) _
>>> gettin' [gETIn] up."
>>>
>>> The above use of "get up" is semantically derived from the "Get up!"
>>> used to put a horse into motion and not from the one that's
>>> equivalent to "Stand up!"
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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>>> > Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>> > Subject: Re: Sambo -- not 1861 or 1704, but 1657
>>> >
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>>> >
>>> > Not just HDAS but even the OED has the 1704 instance. And in
>>> > addition to the HDAS 1838 generic use, the OED has one from 1735: J.
>>> > ATKINS Voy. to Guinea, Brazil & W. Indies 170 If you look strange and
>>> > are niggardly of your Drams, you frighten him; Sambo is gone, he
>>> > never cares to treat with dry lips.
>>> >
>>> > But I found a reference to a specific "Sambo" from 1657, via
>>> > EEBO. See ADS-L archives, 2008 Sep 11, Subject: "Sambo" 1657,
>>> > antedates OED 1704-. (The OED entry has not yet been revised from
>>> > the 1989 edition.)
>>> >
>>> > Joel
>>> >
>>> > At 1/29/2010 10:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>> >>HDAS files contain two refs. to slaves actually named "Sambo" (1704 and
>>> >>1768). OED has an 1818 that is unlikely to be generic.
>>> >>
>>> >>Judge Haliburton's _Clockmaker_ (Series 2) 1838, p. 30 seems to use
>>> >>the name generically: "And Sambo...is sold a second time ag'in."
>>> >>
>>> >>Henry Louis Gates (_Signifying Monkey_, p. 95) cited an undoubted ex.
>>> from
>>> >>1846: "Here, 'Sambo,' you dam jiggery toe nigger."
>>> >>
>>> >>The name was in common (white) use by the 1850s. There's even a rare
>>> plural
>>> >>by 1864:
>>> >>
>>> >>1864 in _Arkansas Historical Qly._ XII (1953) 360: Hundreds of
>>> >>spectato=
>> rs
>>> -
>>> >>ladies, gentlemen, civilians, soldiers, "Sambo's," etc., crowded
>>> >>around=
>> .
>>> >>
>>> >>JL
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 9:12 PM, James A. Landau <
>>> JJJRLandau at netscape.com> <
>>> >>JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>>> >>
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>>> >> > Poster: "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
>>> >> > <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
>>> >> > Subject: Sambo
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>>> >> >
>>> >> > I found an 1861 usage of "Sambo" to mean a black man.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >>
>>> http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/december/george=
>> -opdyke.htm
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Harper's Weekly December 21, 1861
>>> >> >
>>> >> > <quote>
>>> >> > Some writers from Port Royal have stated that the negroes will not
>>> work,
>>> >> > but that when work is offered them they will fly to the woods. This
>>> >> > =
>> is
>>> >> > indignantly denied by other writers, and by several officers of the
>>> >> > expedition, who state that the contrabands work willingly and
>>> >> ably. It would
>>> >> > not be surprising if poor Sambo, after a dozen generations of
>>> >> > slaver=
>> y,
>>> >> > should want to celebrate his sudden emancipation by a brief holiday.
>>> >> > </quote>
>>> >
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> =96=96=96
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint
>>> t=
>> o
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> =96Mark Twain
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --=20
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>
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>
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>
--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain
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