Sambo -- not 1861 or 1704, but 1657

[Jonathan Lighter]

Know what?  "Sambo" may actually be the earliest ex. of this kind of generic
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 = "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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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > 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 spectators
> -
> >>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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> >> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> > 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 slavery,
> >> > should want to celebrate his sudden emancipation by a brief holiday.
> >> > </quote>
> >
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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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