Further Antedating of "Real McCoy"

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Sat Jan 2 13:26:19 UTC 2010


This song ("A New Song Call'd The Real McCoy") gives us some interesting insight into the workings of Google Books.  It is a broadside at the National Library of Scotland, dated ca1870? in that library's catalogue.  In the hands of Google Books, the date becomes 1870.  Pretty shaky dating for historical-lexicographical purposes.

Fred Shapiro

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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