Dialect Notes 1903: Word-List from East Alabama

[Michael Quinion]

John Baker commented:

> Snipes are generally found only in wetlands in America too, I
> believe, but they are not found in all areas and many Americans are
> under the impression that there is no such bird as a snipe.  The
> practical joke, in which the joke's target is told to hold a bag into
> which snipes will be driven, would work only if he were unfamiliar with
> snipes and their behavior.

Of course. I should have realised that!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Michael Quinion Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 3:02 PM To:
> ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Dialect Notes 1903: Word-List from East
> Alabama
>
> John Baker wrote:
>
> > "Snipe hunt" does not appear to be in the OED. Is this not a practical
> > joke used in the UK? I've never come across one in real life, but
> > references to them are common enough that I expect most Americans have
> > heard of them.
>
> We have snipe in the UK, but the species is of marshland, not woodland, and
> so it would be improbable that a snipe hunt would be organised on foot.
> Certainly, I've never encountered the term.
>
> When I looked into "left holding the bag", I found this in Albert
> Bigelow Paine's biography of Mark Twain: "In every trade tricks are
> played on the new apprentice, and Sam felt that it was his turn to play
> them. With John Briggs to help him, tortures for Jim Wolfe were invented
> and applied. They taught him to paddle a canoe, and upset him. They took
> him sniping at night and left him 'holding the bag' in the old
> traditional fashion while they slipped off home and went to bed".
>
> This, taken together with responses from American readers who explained
> that "sniping" meant a practical joke called a snipe hunt, meant that I
> have since assumed that the term is American, not British.
>
> "Holding the bag" however, certainly is British in origin.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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