"sucrye of strabyrs", 1683

[Douglas G. Wilson]

  On 9/27/2010 10:43 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "sucrye of strabyrs", 1683
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have the following sentence in a letter from a
> wife to her husband about to sail out of Marblehead, Mass., in 1683:
>
> "I sent you a bucket of the bust sucrye of
> strabyrs ... I beg your exceptance of my love thear in.”
>
> "Strabyrs" seems obviously
> "strawberries"  "Sucrye" is surely related
> somehow to "sucre", but that word is not in the OED with the meaning "sugar".
>
> I would be interested in the opinions of the
> distinguished members of this list about the following hypothesis:
>
> 1)   Being a transcription from handwriting of
> 1683, there may be inaccuracies due to fading,
> interpretation, and omission of abbreviation marks.
>
> 2)   There is in the MS an abbreviation mark
> associated with both the R of "sucrye" and the B of "strabyrs" that means -ER.
>
> 3)   The Y in "sucrye" was written instead of I for the long E sound.
>
> 4)   The YR in "strabyrs" was reversed from RY,
> whether by a slip of the pen or some other error.
>
> 5)   This Y was written instead of IE for the long E sound.
>
> 6)   The semi-silent W in "strawberries" was omitted.
>
> Thus the following derivations:
>
> sucrye<-- sucr[er][i]e<-- sucrerie
> strabyrs<-- strab[er][ry]s<-- stra[w]berr[i]s<-- strawberries
>
> ("Sucrerie" perhaps does not appear in English
> either.  I do not read French, but:  Although
> "sucrerie" (Fr.) has a different meaning today, a
> correspondent translates it as "sweet" and cites a 17th-century dictionary:
>
>> Maybe "sucrerie of strawberries" (sweet of strawberry, strawberry sweet)
>>
>> Dictionnaire de Richelet (1680) :
>> "Sucreries : toutes choses sucrées. Patisserie
>> composée de sucre et choses douces."
--

At G-books (search <<strabyrs>>) the passage in question is quoted with
"sucrye" interpreted (by a modern author, I guess) as "preserves". Then
perhaps "sucrye" = "[compote] sucrée" or so.

"Sucrerie" (= "sweet") also seems reasonable. But of course one would
like to find another instance in English.

-- Doug Wilson

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