"tree of liberty", 1765, a little earlier (OED, also 1765)

[Mark Mandel]

OED reports singular "effigies" spanning that period:

> A likeness, image, portrait, whether drawn, painted, or sculptured, or of
any other kind. (Now superseded by EFFIGY, exc. as humorously pedantic.)
>
> 1702  W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant vi. 17 The Statue which we saw at this
Castle is the Effigies of Queen Semiramis.  1820  SCOTT  Monast. xxiii.
note, A gold coin of James V..the effigies of the sovereign is represented
wearing a bonnet. 1831  CARLYLE  Sart. Res. (1858) 178 A Signpost,
whereon..stood painted the Effigies of a Pair of Leather Breeches.

I'm including only the quotations that are indisputably singular; there are
others that might have been meant as plural, AFAICT from the citations.

m a m


On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>

> The Great Tree at the [S]outh End of the Town, upon which the
> Effigies [sic] of a Stamp Master was lately hung, was honour'd last
> Wednesday with the Name of The Tree of Liberty; a large Plate of
> Copper, with that Inscription, in Letters of Geld; being fixed thereon.
>
> Source:  The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal. Monday, September
> 16, 1765. page 3 [counting "Supplement" as page 1], col.
> 2.  [EAN]  This too is a 6-page issue, with only the first page [in
> EAN's sequence] having the masthead "Supplement".  It is another case
> where EAN may not have the pages in correct sequence.

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