"tree of liberty" and "liberty tree"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/7/2010 12:28 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>FYI: Google Books does contain an earlier edition of Pamela dated 1742
>with a Bodleian Library gift bookplate. The date inscription
>M.DCC.XLII is given on the title page of volume three which contains
>the phrase "Boughs of the Tree of Liberty".

Regardless -- this has no bearing on the OED's definition of (or
"sense" for) and dating of
      tree of liberty, a tree (or a pole) planted in celebration of a
revolution or victory securing liberty (chiefly in reference to the
French Revolution).

(My only, but a severe, objection, is that the OED's definition of
"liberty tree = tree of liberty" -- thus completely ignoring the
American Revolution in the definitions ... but perhaps they're a
bunch of reactionary Tory loyalists over there.)

Whether the metaphoric sense of "tree of liberty", from Richardson or
elsewhere, deserves a (separate) definition and set of quotations in
the OED is a separate question.

Joel

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