griffin 2 (new arrival) antedated (?) to 1791

[Stephen Goranson]

OED griffin 2
Anglo-Indian.
[Of uncertain origin: usually explained as a fig. use of prec., but there is no evidence for this.]
    A European newly arrived in India, and unaccustomed to Indian ways and peculiarities; a novice, new-comer, greenhorn.
1793 CHILD in Southey Life Bell (1844) I. 459 Wilks..will..lend you every assistance in forwarding these matters, in which..you must, I presume, be a perfect griffin. 1794 H. BOYD Ind. Observ. No. 34 {page}5, I am little better than an unfledged Griffin, according to the fashionable phrase here [Madras]. ......
***
If we put aside a 1624 use of uncertain relevance in Beaumont and Fletcher, noted in Hobson-Jobson (and by Jonathon Green), the following, available at Eighteenth Century Journals, may qualify as an antedating, and possible evidence for at least the notion that the term was associated with griffin 1, the fabulous animal. Note that it is from the Madras Courier in 1791, and the OED 1794 quote refers to the "fashionable phrase" in Madras. The image is a bit small; I haven't checked the transcription.

Madras Courier, Volume 7 - Thursday 15th, September 1791 - Issue 318 [scan has 310]  p.89 (?) col. 4 to p. 90 (?)  col. 2 [p. 2-3 of the issue]

TO the EDITOR of THE MADRAS
                          COURIER.
     SIR,
     THE general use of the word Griffin,
        applied to an individual who had lately
landed, on the Coast of Coromandel,
cannot but have made an Impression, on
the mind of every one who has had the
felicity, of being here, and has been subject
to the appeliation. It seldom happens
that a newly arrived person, has been more
than a few hours released from his Ship,
before he hears himself and his fellow-
Passengers called Griffins. As soon as
he reflects, the meaning of the word and
the intent of its application must in some
measure be obvious, and he cannot
but feel himself confoundedly awkward to
be considered, not as a stranger to whom
every mark of attention is due, but as a
rarce-show-Animal that never really exist-
ed, except in the the ludicrous imagina-
tion of the poet or the painter. It is
extremely vexations too to see every little
misfortune that may happen to him in
landing; every natural surprise that he
may express at finding himself surrounded
by black beings. of whose dress and man-
ners he could have no adequate Idea; every
imposition that may in consequence ensue;
and every little mistake he must necessarily
be liable to in a strange country, attribu-
ted generally and individually to Griffinism.
I assure you, Mr. Editor, 'tis not long
ago, since a young Gentleman, who was
just arrived, and who had nothing about
him that I know to be ashamed of, was
complaining of the mortification of being
placed in so ridiculous a light, where his
vanity had led him to believe he should
make a very different Impression. It had
such an effect upon him, that he absolutely
declined entering into a varity of com-
panies; and as he possessed a talent that
contributes much to convivial pleasures, the
settlement was deprived of the enjoyment,
because my friend, could not endure the
Idea of being a singing Griffin; a simple
Lion he would have been probably conten-
ed with; but a Griffin, half beast half
bird, especially while he was singing, he
conceived, must impress every one with
comical Ideas to which his artillery of
patience and effrontery was very unequal:
circumstances of this kind, I make no
doubt, frequently happen, and inconveni-
ences may arise to society as well to the
poor individual, whose very means of
avoiding it are often an additional proof
of his Griffinism; but I must own, Mr.
Editor, the application does not appear
to me to be an absurd one, on the contrary
extremely apposite to the conduct and
behaviour of gentlefolks on their first
arrival on this coast. I have observed,
and who has not observed? both in one
sex and the other, importers of the newest
fashions, and fresh with the latest im-
pressions of the metropolis, a certain
fierceness of deportment, an affected
consciousness of the politest manners,
which tho' brought perhaps from pettycoat-
lane or cranbourn ally, they imagine are to
carry every thing before them; all which
are surely not badly pourtrayed by the
expansibility of the lions claws, with the
wild stare, the gaping and defying beak
of the eagle.
     I have observed too, Mr. Editor, that
Griffins in general are by no means behind
hand in retaliation, and each equally cut
their joke or point their satire at what
they term an old Indian, who feeds them
on curry and rice, and saunters about
in his solitary bandy, and I have met with
many a severe attack, many a well-aimed
thrust too forcibly directed to be easily
parried, of which the eagle's sharp and
barbed tongue is a hieroglyphic: on
the whole therefore, the name is so far
from being improperly fitted, that it is a
complete simile, meaning on all fours:
but this is not all—Griffinism, Mr. Editor,
is undoubtedly a disease, to which persons
are subject on their first arrival in the
East Indies, and it is incredible into what
strange absurdity, into what laughable and
ridiculous situations patients are liable to
fall during their Griffinage. It can be
compared to nothing, but to the propeil-
sity to making bulls which afflicts the
natives of Ireland, and is generally com-
municated to strangers, who for sometime
have imbibed the air of that country:
similar effects must arise from similar
causes; and as there seems to be no other
similar operation, that can produce on the
human intellect disorders so nearly ressem-
bling each other, why may we not attri-
bute Griffinism also to the air of the country,
which probably contains certain m[ILL]phiti-
cal particles of Griffinism, which at length
lose their effect? But I think I have some-
where read that, in these clime, the 1 &
Moon have a peculiar influence in certain
diseases, Is Griffinism therefore owing to
the Sun? or are Griffins affected by the
Moon? or is it a sol-lunar influence that
prevails here, and produces the effects of
Griffinism on the minds and bodies of
strangers? These however are only con-
jectures, which it is not my business to
presecute farther. I shall therefore leave
the cause of this complaint to the better
investigation of the medical Gentlemen,
who cannot bestow their leisure time to
more advantage than in the examination
of Griffinism, which has been remarka-
bly endemic this last year, and " has in-
" creased, is increasing, and ought to be
" diminished:" but I cannot but ob-
serve one circumstance which I believe
is peculiar to this complaint—Griffinism,
Mr. Editor, is so far from troubling any
one except the poor unfortunate Griffin,
that it affoads infinite pleasure to some
people, and keeps others alive to notice,
who would presently sink into their ori-
ginal nothingness, if a certain consequence
were not preserved by a constant succes-
sion of Griffins, whom they shew and hand
about as possessing many extraordinary
qualities, during their Griffinical state,
which continue till some more distempered
patient renders them less worthy of notice.
I could mention many instances of this,
Mr. Editor, if they were not fresh in the
minds of all your readers at this place,
who cannot have set their foot upon the
beach without having experienced it:
but before I quit this subject, I must take
the liberty of mentioning two cases of
Griffinism which are uncommonly and
strongly marked; not but that the gene-
rality of your Madras readers can instant-
ly call to memory hundreds of instances
equally as striking, affecting, and novel.
I do it, merely because your Courier has
a very extensive circulation, and what I
have said above may not be so sufficiently
explanatory of this complaint to persons
at a distance, as a case or two in which it
has occurred. Besides, for what we know,
Griffinism may be prevalent in other cli-
mates—in the West Indies—in China—
in New Holland—this publication there
fore may produce an enquiry, and excite
observations in the medical Philosophers
of those parts, who may not yet have ta-
ken notice of it as a distemper, and who
may be successful enough hereafter, to
discover some speedy mode of cure which
till now has baffled the sagacity of the
Honorable Company's Servants. Case 1st.
A young lade, ages nineteen, of a robust
make, corpulent, with dark hair, and
never subject to nervous complaints, had
occasion soon after her arrival at Madras,
to go in a Palankeen as far as St. Tho-
mas's mount. After a few paces she was
seized with Griffinism. At first the noise
of the boys amazed her; but afterwards
it excited her compassion to such a degree
that she resolved to ease them for a time
of the painful burden, which in her dis-
turbed imagination she supposed to be the
cause of such excessive Grunting and
Groaning. She therefore got out of the
Palankeen, and walked a considerable
way in the noontide heat, reflecting (as
it afterwards was discovered) on the mis-
eries which some of our Fellow-creatures
in different parts of the world, are obliged
to endure, tho' not without murmuring:
at last exhausted by heat and fatigue she
turned round, and perceiving that the
boys continued to tune their pipes equally
with an empty, as with a full Palankeen,
the Paroxism greatly increased. She be-
came pale—her eyes rolled—but breath
was short—her voice small—the attendant
dubash being well acquainted with the
disorder, instantly replaced her in the Pa-
lankeen, and she returned home having
experienced these effects of sun and Grif-
finism. Case 2d. A young man a little
above the age of puberty, of a florid com-
plexion, and sanguine temperament, the
moon being at the full, and the thermo-
meter at 92½ the day after he had supped
at the Frec-mason's Hall was attacked
with Griffinism. He had not been on
shore above three weeks, and there is
good reason to think there is no hereditary
disease in the family. It came on sudden-
ly, as the Hair-dresser was preparing him
to dine with a certain great man, his
cheeks glowed, his pulse grew quicker;
he surveyed himself head and foot in the
looking-glass, his imagination seemed dis-
turbed, and after fitting on a new coat
he asked the Hair-dresser, how long it
would be before he should marry a Nabob?
The Hair-dresser smiling, the fit-imme-
diately left him; but the patient, I hear,
is troubled with a relapse whenever he
wants money, and the moon is in the
same quarter.
     Such, Mr. Editor, are the effects of
Griffinism; whose existence nobody can
doubt, tho' its cause may as yet be undis-
covered in the womb of time. Whether
it be occasioned by the air, or the influ-
ence of the heavenly bodies this is certain,
that though it resembles the disease of Ire-
land in some striking features, in other
respects the disparity is equally as remar-
kable——Griffinism is certainly to be
migitated, probably prevented. If I may
be indulged in one more conjecture, some
kind of Quarantine might be contrived,
which would at least keep off its worst
symptoms. This however is a conside-
ration that belongs only to Government,
who (I speak with due defference) might
offer a handsome reward, a gold medal,
or a silver cup, to the discoverer of a
preventive, or an easy, safe, and ex-
peditious mode of cure for Griffinism,
which at present is so inconvenient to
many of his Majesty's subjects.
               I have the honor to be,
                    Mr. Editor,
                         Your Constant Reader
                                          SPLASH.




Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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