Antedating of "POTUS"

[Shapiro, Fred]

POTUS (OED 1903)

1895 _Atlanta Constitution_ 30 Nov. 6 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)  One night a receiver on The Constitution's press wire took a sentence which read: "The Potus today made the following appointments."  "Potus" stands for "president of the United States," and "scotus" for "supreme court of the United States."

NOTE: This is also a citation that the OED can use for _scotus_, which may be widespread enough to have an entry in the OED.

Fred Shapiro




________________________________________
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org [project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of Suzanne Watkins [gilgunn2003 at ymail.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 11:15 AM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: Re: [PW] Origin of "POTUS"

The Phillips Code was first published in 1879.  That would be 24 years before the 1903 OED cite.

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Beagán a rá agus é a rá go maith

--- On Sun, 11/21/10, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [PW] Origin of "POTUS"
To: "list at project-wombat.org" <list at project-wombat.org>
Date: Sunday, November 21, 2010, 4:02 PM


But note that the OED documents "POTUS" from 1903, 22 years before the Phillips Code usage.

Fred Shapiro
________________________________________
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org [project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of Suzanne Watkins [gilgunn2003 at ymail.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 10:48 AM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: Re: [PW] Origin of "POTUS"

In the NYT article link I sent lies the answer to the inventor of the acronym POTUS and it was not the U.S. government. Below is that answer and more.

Telegrapher Walter P. Phillips of Associated Press originated the acronym POTUS in his shorthand code for rapid transmission of press reports via telegraph.

"...in 1879 he published the first edition of the "Phillips code" -- a system so fundamentally sound in principle and so easy to learn that it quickly became the standard code used throughout the North American continent."

If you would like to see the code (POTUS is in part three)

The Phillips Code Bi-Centennial Edition (1925)

Part One    http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/phillip1.htm
Part Two    http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/phillip2.htm
Part Three  http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/phillip3.htm
Part Four   http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/phillip4.htm

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Beagán a rá agus é a rá go maith

--- On Sat, 11/20/10, Suzanne Watkins <gilgunn2003 at ymail.com> wrote:

From: Suzanne Watkins <gilgunn2003 at ymail.com>
Subject: Re: [PW] Origin of "POTUS"
To: list at project-wombat.org
Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 9:09 PM

A look at the history of the term is explored in these two 1997 articles

Taking Notice of POTUS (The Atlantic)
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/97oct/wordimp.htm

On Language; Potus And Flotus (New York Times)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E6DC1F3DF931A25753C1A961958260

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Beagán a rá agus é a rá go maith

--- On Sat, 11/20/10, Phalbe Henriksen <phenriksen at embarqmail.com> wrote:

From: Phalbe Henriksen <phenriksen at embarqmail.com>
Subject: [PW] Origin of "POTUS"
To: list at project-wombat.org
Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 8:34 PM

Did "POTUS" start out as a military term, a government term, or something else?

Thanks.

Phalbe Henriksen

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_______________________________________________
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list at project-wombat.org
http://www.project-wombat.org/
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list at project-wombat.org
http://www.project-wombat.org/




_______________________________________________
Project Wombat - Project-Wombat
list at project-wombat.org
http://www.project-wombat.org/
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