"Nor'easter" -- missing definition? and an antedating

[Kelli Slimp]

Joel,

My 2 cents:

In West Texas, where I'm from originally, the storm is just as Jonathan
described, except that it's usually called a "blue north'er" and is most
often witnessed in the spring, when cold fronts from Canada sweep
unobstructed through the plains states. The temperature has been known to
drop as much as 30 degrees F in a few hours, and there is wind, hail, rain,
lightening, etc.

ks

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Nor'easter" -- missing definition? and an antedating
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Well, there are winds and there are winds, but my impression is that a
> "nor'easter," by definition, is a strong one and thus the word's extension
> to include, even designate, the frequently following storm of rain, sleet,
> etc.
>
> However, a "brisk nor'ester" is merely, well, brisk. OED needs to tweak its
> definition.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 9:33 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      "Nor'easter" -- missing definition? and an antedating
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 1)  What is a "Northeaster"?  The OED, as of last month, claims that
> > it is merely "A wind blowing from the north-east" (or, very rarely,
> > "A waterproof hat or cap").  I say a nor'easter is also, these days,
> > a *storm* whose winds come from the northeast (and, as Ben Franklin
> > deduced, which arrives from the southwest).  As in "the nor'easter
> > dumped 6 inches of snow on Boston yesterday".
> >
> > What say all ye other Northeasterners?
> >
> > 2)  Google Books turns up 205 instances of "northeaster storm",
> > claiming the earliest to be from 1889, in The Magazine of American
> > history with notes and queries, Volume 21 - Page 209 (full view; this
> > quotation is from No. 3, March, 1889 [see page 177]):
> >
> > "Many years later, and about the year A.D. 1000, another northeaster
> > storm caught a son of this Erik and hurried him past some islands far
> > off in the farther southwest, that had not gone under in the
> > catastrophe of Atlantis."
> >
> > One could, I suppose, take this and perhaps other "northeaster"s in
> > "northeaster storm" to mean merely "its winds came from the northeast".
> >
> > 3)  But what did Samuel Griswold Goodrich mean by the following
> > sentence in his 1836 "new edition, carefully adapted to youth", of
> > _Robinson Crusoe_?   "After passing the line, being in about 7
> > degrees 22 minutes north latitude, a violent tornado or hurricane,
> > which settled into a regular nor'easter, ..." -- a storm, or a
> > wind?  The OED concedes that tornados and hurricanes are storms; I
> > think by "nor'easter" Goodrich also meant a storm.
> >
> > 4)  The OED, as of last month, has 1770 as its earliest citation  for the
> > wind.
> >
> >  From 1753: Boston Post-Boy; Date: Nov 12, 1753; Issue: 984; Page: 2/1:
> >
> > "Cap. Savage had a strong North-Easter some Hours before, about 8
> > Leagues S. W. of the Cape [Florida], in which he carried away his
> > Boltsprit, but happily recover'd it again."
> >
> > Joel
> >
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>
>
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