"critter"

Sat Aug 27 19:39:09 UTC 2011

I have never heard or even read it so used either.

In regard to the usage of H. B. Stowe, readers of pulp westerns of a few
generations ago will recall the frequent use of "critter" as a vaguely
dismissive term for any human being.

JL

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 2:55 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "critter"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FWIW, I'm with Doug Wilson on this one--all I see is
> critter=3D=3Dcreature,=
>  with
> no particularly strong attachment to any slurs.
>
> Here's a selection from just one year's worth of a publication that covers
> critter/crittur=3D=3Ddog/horse/rattlesnake/mermaid/person/[unidentified
> animal].
>
> http://goo.gl/zpiA8
> Graham's Magazine. Volume 22. Philadelphia: 1843
> No. 1 (January). How to Tell a Story. By Seba Smith. pp. 34-5
>
> > "Well, the next night John took Rover--now Rover was the largest dog I
> ev=
> er
> > see, near about as large as a heifer, and the knowingest *critter* I ever
> > laid eyes on. Well, John took him out to the pen, and told him to watch
> t=
> he
> > sheep. John 'll never forget how that *critter* looked up in his face,
> an=
> d
> > licked his hand when he left him, just as if he knew what would come of
> i=
> t,
> > and wanted to say good bye; nor how he crouched down before the bars, and
> > laid his nose upon his paws, and looked after him solemnlike. Poor Rover!
> > The next morning John was up airly, for he felt kind a worried. He went
> o=
> ut
> > to the sheep pen, and sure enough the first thing he see, was--(Polly,
> yo=
> u
> > 've just cut a worm-hole into your apples)--the first thing he see, was
> > poor Rover dead I by the bars, his head torn right open, and another
> shee=
> p
> > gone. John's dander was fairly up--he took down the gun, there it hangs
> o=
> n
> > the hooks, took his powder-horn and bullets, and started off. I tried to
> > coax him to set a trap, or to watch by the sheep-pen. But John always
> had=
>  a
> > will of his own, and was the courageousest man in the town, and he
> declar=
> ed
> > he 'd have nothing to do with any such cowardly tricks. He 'd kill the *
> > critter* in broad day-light, if 'twas only to revenge poor Rover. So he
> > started off. He tracked the *critter* about a mile round by the mountain,
> > which in them days was covered with trees to the very top.
>
>
> [Review of] The Career of Puffer Hopkins. By Cornelius Mathews. ... New
> York, D. Appleton & Co. 1842. p. 59
>
> > "Not more thnn twenty acres," responded the deepchested juror, with the
> a=
> ir
> > of a gentleman carrying all before him; "and swimmin' a healthy run o'
> wa=
> ter
> > a rod wide give the *critter* a belly-full at any time."
>
>
> No. 2 (February). The Enchanted Gun. A Tennessee Story. By C. F. Hoffman.
> p=
> .
> 62.
>
> > "You thought I would have been here before?" I exclaimed at last, in
> repl=
> y
> > to her singular salutation; "why, my good woman, I have lost my way, and
> > only stumbled upon your house by accident--you must take me for somebody
> > else."
> > "I 'm no good woman. Don't good woman me," she replied, with a
> scrutinizi=
> ng
> > glance which had something, I thought, of almost fierceness in it, as
> > shading the now lighted candle with one hand, she turned scornfully round
> > and fixed her regards upon me.
> > "Yes! yes, strannger, you are the man, the very man that was to come at
> > this hour. I dreamed ye--I dreamed yer hoss--yer brown leggins and all, I
> > dreamed 'em--and now go look after yer *critter* while I get some supper
> =
> for
> > ye."
>
>
>  The Fire-Doomed. A Tale of the "Old Dominion". By Reynell Coates. p. 122
>
> > "There, Mister," said his attendant, "I kinder calkilate you've ben
> sleep=
> in
> > with a bed-feller not of your own choosin last night, any how. I 'd
> rathe=
> r
> > keep to hum than come all the way up here after such a tarnal reptyle *
> > crittur* as that. It's well for you that our Crumple strayed away yester
> > noon, and the old woman took on so powerful about the milk. This chap was
> > quirled up close to your ear when I came upon you. Do tell! Arn't he a
> > swingeing big one?" And he lifted, upon the end of his stick, a monstrous
> > rattle-snake, whose head had been crushed by the last blow. His back had
> > been broken before the sleeper woke.
> > ...
> > "Now, you don't say! Come all the way from Virginia a huntin! Why, how
> > tired you must be! You 'd find it much easier to ride. May be you and me
> > couldn't make a bargain for my four-year-old? He's as handsome a *
> > crittur* as ever you see: he takes to the beach-woods as nateral and as
> > spry as a squirrel=97gallops over log causeway and never stumbles--and
> gi=
> ts
> > fat on nothin and potatoe rinds!"
>
>
> Volume 23
> No. 2 (August). Jack Spanker and the Mermaid. By Elizabeth Okes Smith. pp.
> 69-70
>
> > "I won 't deny, says I, you 're a nice lookin' gal, but what colors do
> yo=
> u
> > sail under, how do you hail? I 've no notion bein' fool'd by any
> heatheni=
> sh
> > *critter*, bred a Christian as I 've been.
> > "You should a seen her laugh. 'You may call me what pleases you best.
> Won=
> 't
> > you give me a name, Jack ?'
> > "No, faith, I mean to do that for Nelly. Howsomever, I do n't object to
> > call you Nelly jest one v'yge.
> > "The *critter* laughed agin, and I don't know how it was, she did look
> li=
> ke
> > Nelly Spaulding. I rubbed my eyes over and over agin, but there she was
> > growin' more and more like her every minit. After awhile, says I,
> > ...
> > "You may well say that, says I, and none of your fish-ending and 'yster
> > kind of *critters* neither, for you must know I had n't hardly got over
> h=
> er
> > asking me to lake a trip to Davy's locker. I had n't well nigh got the
> wo=
> rds
> > out of my mouth, before there the *critter* was a sittin' on the
> jib-boom=
> ,
> > right before me, and two the funniest little feet just peeping out from
> > under her petticoats. I jest took my fore-finger and touched her little
> > white arm, same as I used to do to the dough, when my mother's back was
> > turned. And sure enough 'twas soft and warm, and nothing like clam or
> fis=
> h
> > about it. But she didn't mean to stay, for she jumped down agin,
> laughin'=
>  in
> > great fun. Then the mate called out, ' Jack, a'int you done that jib
> yet?=
> '
> > "Aye, aye, mostly, sir, but there's been a confounded mermaid here
> plagui=
> n'
> > me. Then the men all laughed, as if they thought it a good joke, but I
> kn=
> ew
> > it was airnest. But what's the use tryin' to teach poor ignorant
> *critter=
> s*
> > what wont believe what a man tells them he has seen with his own eyes?"
>
>
> No. 6 (December). A Day in the Woods. Or English and American Game. By
> Fran=
> k
> Forester. p. 294
>
> > "Yes, that is it, certainly--and those *are *hares and pheasants--and
> > that's a right smart Jersey trotter, I some guess--a *critter* that can
> > travel like a strick--and the boy holding him--that's a Long Island
> nigge=
> r,
> > now I calkilate, --oh, ya--as! and that's a Yorker on a gunnin' scrape,
> > stringin' them pheasants! ya--as;" and he spoke with so absurd an
> imitati=
> on
> > and exaggeration of the Yankee twang and drawl, that he set Heneage
> > laughing, though he was still more than half indignant.
>
>
>
> It's possible that someone divined that "critter" was a slur from various
> uses such as the ones in Uncle Tom, or a comment by a Sheridan scout (from
> his memoirs) concerning" Injuns and other critters". But, really, just
> substituting "creature" for "critter" makes it look less like a slur and
> just a term of general indifference. It applies in random measure to all
> sorts of animals--same as it does today, but without the additional
> connotation of smallness and cuteness, perhaps--to mermaids, to people of
> pretty much any creed. There is some derogatory sense in it, but that's not
> racial--just a general sense of contempt--and even that only on occasion.
> I=
> t
> certainly does not appear to have been /intended/ as a slur in the mid- to
> late 19th century (and entirely US).
>
> BTW, any attempt at antedating (OED--1815) failed in GB--all pre-1815 tags
> and many of 1816-1833 turned out to be spurious, some obviously so
> (including the Sheridan memoirs published in 1885 but tagged as 1825).
>
> VS-)
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 1:01 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > Worth more than a little, I think.  Googling one edition shows 4
> > instances of "critter".  From an 1852 edition, vol. 2, GBooks full view.
> >
> > Topsy speaking of herself:  "I spects I's the wickedest critter in
> > the world."  [Surely this must have made the YBQ!  Or at least a
> > stage version.]  Page 50.
> >
> > A master speaking of a slave: "Well, here's a pious dog ... Powerful
> > holy critter, he must be!"  Page 197.
> >
> > Tom speaking of his master: "Ye poor miserable critter! ... there
> > an't no more ye can do! I forgive ye, with all my soul!"  Page 274.
> >
> > Tom talking to George (another slave?) about (I believe) a master:
> > "O, don't---oh, ye mustn't! ... he's a poor mis'able critter! ... O,
> > if he only could repent, the Lord would forgive him now ..."  Page 281.
> >
> > Use by both masters and slaves is interesting.  And I wonder if the
> > master's use can really be considered racial.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 8/27/2011 12:33 PM, Andrea Morrow wrote:
> > >FWIW I am reading Uncle Tom's Cabin (Kindle edition) and "critter" is
> us=
> ed
> > >extensively there as one of the milder references by the white
> character=
> s
> > to
> > >the African American characters.  Even the "good" people use that term.
> > >
> > >Andrea
> >
>
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