"true blue", 1800

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/23/2011 11:19 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>I suppose the "blue" meant gin -- don't know why.  It appears in the
>expression "blue ruin".

George writes "blue ruin" dates from 1811.  (The OED doesn't say why
it means "gin" either.)  Might my find from 1800 be a significant
early use of "blue" for gin?

>"Daylights" was a prizefighters' term for "eyes":  _"dim her daylights."_
>would mean "black her eyes".

Sounds good to me.

(I don't suppose the pirates were hunting snipe.)

Joel

>      The hunt was somewhat annoyed by the number of pirates who located
>themselves upon the runways, and intercepting the course of the river,
>killed and poached a number nearly equal to that obtained by the
>sportsmen. One
>of these lawless intruders, who, probably excited by an over dose of *blue
>ruin*, was disposed to be troublesome and impertinent, received from one of
>the drivers of the hunt his pay down, in undepreciated Kentucky currency,
>producing a total obscurity of his *day-lights* and a most copious effusion
>of claret.
>
>New-York American, November 1, 1822, p. 2, col. 5  (I forget what was being
>hunted.)
>
>
>
>blue ruin = HDAS: 1811 (English); 1821, 1833, (US)
>
>day-lights = HDAS: 1752 (English); 1833 (US)

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