shagging & fucking

[George Thompson]

I read court testimony in the newspapers, and in a monthly publication called the N-Y City-Hall Recorder, published from about 1818 to about 1824.  Both are usually a sort of half-baked verbatim, a condensed verbatim, and observe the decencies.
I have looked at the complaints in the New-York County District Attorney's files, at the NYC Archives, but only for certain months, when I have been hoping to find some particular case.  As I recall, I've found one or two words of some interest, which I've posted to ADS-L -- the only one I recall at the moment was from a case of child molesting -- the little girl's mother testified that her daughter said the man put his hand on "my little kibble".
I don't know that there is a manuscript file of trial court testimony.  I'd also like to find records of the hearings before coroner's juries.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Date: Saturday, September 4, 2010 7:10 pm
Subject: Re: shagging & fucking
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> At 9/4/2010 01:11 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> >My usual reading matter -- NYC newspapers, 1801-1850 -- offer
> >remarkably few dirty words, so I must hope to find them elsewhere.
>
> George, do you read court testimony?  Or were they tamer in the 19th
> century than in New England in the 17th and 18th centuries?
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org