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

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks for the "support", Mark.  My just plain
Webster's (New Collegiate) also has "northeaster"
as "storm or wind" (but it does not have
"nor'easter").  And see interspersed below.

At 1/19/2010 11:53 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:

>Merriam-Webster, and etymological discussion (with refs) from Wikipedia.
>
>...
>
>Wikipedia:
>University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor Mark Liberman has pointed
>out that while the OED cites examples dating back to 1837, they represent
>the contributions of a handful of non-New England poets and writers.

The example of "nor'easter" I found from Samuel
Griswold Goodrich is 1836, and the *very*
prolific Goodrich (553 items in Harvard's
catalog) certainly was a New England writer.

>Liberman posits that "nor’Easter" may have originally been a literary
>affectation, akin to "e'en" for "even" and "th'only" for "the only," which
>is an indication in spelling that two syllables count for only one position
>in metered verse, with no implications for actual pronunciation.[9]
>
>However, despite these assertions the term can be found in the writings of
>New Englanders going back at least to the 19th century. Thomas Bailey
>Aldrich writing in his semi-autobiographical work The Story of the Bad
>Boy(1870) "We had had several slight flurries of hail and snow before, but
>this was a regular nor'easter."[1]. In "The Gray Goth"(1869) Elizabeth
>Stuart Phelps Ward wrote "...and there was snow in the sky now, setting in
>for a regular nor'easter."[2] Usage existed into the 20th century in the
>form of current event description("In spite of a heavy "nor'easter," the
>worst that has visited the New England coast in years, the hall was crowded"
>- 1908 [3]), historical reference ("In December of 1778, the Federal brig
>General Arnold, Magee master and twelve Barnstable men among the crew, drove
>ashore on the Plymouth flats during a furious nor'easter, the "Magee storm"
>that mariners, for years after, used as a date to reckon from."(1917)[4])
>and ("common contraction for northeaster" (1959)[5] & "During this battle,
>the dreaded, disagreeable and destructive Northeaster rages over the New
>England, the Middle States, and southward. No Nor'easter ever occurs except
>when there is a high barometer headed off and driven down upon Nova Scotia
>and Lower Canada" (1878)[6]).

Goodrich's 1836 antedates these also.  I've just
added to the Wikipedia discussion page.

Joel

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