Fwd: "plugged, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Victor Steinbok]

plugged, adj. 1. 1872 --> 1810
unplugged, adj. 1. 1856 --> 1775

I hope OED does not get annoyed at me for this. I keep posting (although
much less frequently lately) some antedating exercises on the Word of
the Day articles that I get in the mail. It makes for an easy focus for
spot checks and I already have about 100 that I marked "to do". Today,
we get "plugged, adj.". The earliest mark is in the primary sense from
1872. The "plugged nickel" sense (2.) is from 1883. Ironically, I just
saw a comment on this meaning of "plugged" (without "nickel") from the
1840s, but I don't recall /where/ I saw it, so it'll have to be searched
for anew. But I quickly hit on earlier dates for 1. I may be wrong here
and I possibly simply hunted down a variety of participles, but the
usage seems identical to the later OED examples, so I thought I should
share them.

http://goo.gl/7YQ7u
Law Reports of Patent Cases by William Carpmael. Volume 1. London: 1843
Bainbridge v. Wigley. December, 1810. p. 271
[The text actually comes from the "specification", which appears in a
long footnote. The specification is signed by Bainbridge and dated April
26, 1810.]
> And moreover, I do declare, that the upper joint of the English flute
> or flageolet maybe turned of the same thickness as that of the German
> flute of the same pitch, and that in such and the said case the
> distance from the centre of the *plugged* part to the centre of the
> uppermost finger-hole must be about nine inches and five-eighths. And
> that I do cut away the back part of the plug underneath about one inch
> deep, but do at the same time leave that part of the plug which covers
> the throat about the thickness of three-sixteenths of an inch, but
> that the thickness or quantity to be cut from the plug may be, without
> difficulty, regulated by a competent workman or maker of these or the
> like instruments. And further, that the breadth of the plug-hole of an
> English flute or flageolet as before described must be from side to
> side about half an inch, and the distance from the bottom of the plug
> to the wind cutter about the three-sixteenths of an inch; and that the
> distance from the hole out of which the sound issues, or the *plugged*
> hole to the first finger hole may be varied, and the same effect
> continue to be produced ; that is to say, if the *plugged* joint be
> turned of larger diameter, and _plugged_ according to the proportions
> hereinbefore given, the flute will be flatter, and, consequently, the
> distance between hole and hole must be less; and so, on the contrary,
> if the diameter or bore be smaller and the plugging the same, the
> instrument will be sharper and the distance from hole to hole must be
> greater; and a like observation may be made with regard to the
> variation of the said distance between hole and hole if the *plugged*
> hole from which the sound proceeds be made either larger or smaller,
> because the larger hole will give the sharper pitch, and will require
> the said distance between hole and hole to be greater; and, on the
> other hand, the smaller hole will give the flatter pitch, and require
> the said distance to be less, the bore being supposed the same in both
> cases.

I may be misreading OED's interpretation of "adjective", but it seems to
me that four highlighted occurrences (*bold*) are "adjectives" and one
(_underlined_) is not.

The publication date is 1843, but there can be no doubt that the patent
was filed and processed--and adjudicated--in 1810. That's 62 years
earlier than OED's earliest citation.

There may well be some intervening publications, but the next ones I got
are from 1853, on plugged arteries, from 1859, on plugged teeth, and
from 1862, on impacted--or, plugged--esophagus. [The notation is
substantially the same--verbs/participles _underlined_ and "adjectives"
*bolded*.]

http://goo.gl/g9eB4
The Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences. No. 17. Philadelphia: 1853
Art. 20.— Cases of Hemiplegia produced by the plugging of one of the
Cerebral Arteries. By (1) Dr. Ruhle, of Breslau; and (2) Dr. Burrows.
(Virckow's Archiv, Fob. 1853; and Medical Times and Gazette, Feb. 5 ond
March 19.) p. 43
> The left arteria fossae Sylvii is _plugged_ in the first part of its
> course. The plug consists of a firm, calcareous deposit surrounded by
> soft yellowish fibrin; from this place to the next collateral branch,
> a clot filling the vessel; from there, the vessel empty. The walls of
> the vessel at the *plugged* point, and of the vessels generally at the
> base of the brain, smooth, transparent, and healthy. ...
> ... Near the *plugged* vessel was found softening of the brain.

http://goo.gl/kZjee
A System of Dental Surgery. By Sir John Tomes. Philadelphia: 1859
p. 388
> In another mouth, again, inwhich there are many *plugged* teeth,
> treated by the same operator, we find each plug surrounded by
> discolored dentine, associated with a thickened and vascular state of
> the mucous membrane. With the lapse of time the decay indicated by the
> discoloration extends, and the plug falls out. Again, instances will
> be seen in which a number of *plugged* teeth, after standing without
> appreciable change for years, shows signs of giving way--not, however,
> in consequence of the defective character of the operation, but in
> consequence of failure in the general health, and a concomitant
> vitiation of the oral fluids.

[Also in the Index: "Injudicious interference with plugged teeth, 406",
and "Treatment of disease in plugged teeth, 593".]


http://goo.gl/vEnLI
The Veterinarian. Volume 35:411. London: March 1862
Communications and Cases: STRANGULATED HERNIA.—PARALYSIS OF THE PENIS. —
IMPACTED ŒSOPHAGUS. — ... . By J. R. Hoey
pp. 132-3
> The next case I have to relate was a case of *plugged* or impacted
> oesophagus. The horse, a ravenous feeder, had eaten till he had
> _plugged_ the oesophagus from its cardiac portion, nearly up to the
> pharynx. ...
> ... Is it possible that the *plugged* oesophagus had paralysed the
> epiglottis, which ceased to perform its function, and deprived the
> parts of their extreme sensitiveness, thus preventing the excessive
> irritability and spasmodic convulsion that one would expect to ensue
> on the passing of a cattle probang down the trachea into the bronchi ? ...
> ... An incision was made parallel to and immediately below the jugular
> vein, the cellular membrane of the subjacent parts loosened with the
> finger, and the *plugged* oesophagus exposed to view. An incision of
> about three inches was now made through the tube, and a probe passed a
> very little way, after a quantity of grain had been removed, but all
> to no purpose. Mr. Barker now made an incision lower down, towards the
> thoracic portion of the tube, and found it _plugged_ as densely as
> above. ...

Interestingly, OED earliest placement of "unplugged" is from 1856.

unplugged, adj.
1. Not plugged; having no stopper, open; having had a plug or stopper
removed.
1856    N.Y. Times 17 Mar. 4/3   The carpenter left an auger hole unplugged.

I had to scratch my head a bit on this one, as it seems similar to the
last line of the 1862 citation above that I labeled as /not/ an
adjective (for "plugged"). But all that seems hardly relevant, when a
dictionary 80 years prior had already had an entry for "unplugged".

http://goo.gl/wD01i
The new and complete dictionary of the English language. By John Ash.
Volume 2. London: 1775
> Unplug'ged (/p. from/ unplug) Open by having the plug drawn out.
> Unplug'ged (/adj. from/ un, and plugged) Not plugged.

Note the differentiation between the participle and the adjective. No
such luck for "plugged":

> Plug'ged (/p. from/ plug) Stopped with a plug.

"Unplugged" is considerably more rare--only 95 GB hits prior to 1863,
compared to 12800 for "plugged" for the same period. So I could actually
review all of them. There is an 1837 cite in Harvardiana (vol. 3
http://goo.gl/G5vR1 ) .

An interesting one from 1832:

http://goo.gl/FbRpc
New England Farmer. December 12, 1832
Plugging Trees with Sulphur. p. 174/2
> No diminution of these insects was observed, however, and the trees
> both *plugged* and *unplugged* continued to be infected.

I am not sure if "my ears still unplugged" (1823) qualifies.

There may be other instances of adjectival "plugged" but (1) it's
impossible to go though the entire 12800 GB hits, (2) each hit only
shows one or two occurrences within the text--other multiple occurrences
would have to be investigated individually, and (3) most of the hits
I've been investigating appear to occur in medical/dental literature
(with a handful of artillery pieces) and none seem to have been
published before 1810.

Well, the last one is not quite accurate. It is true I did not find
"plugged". But I did find "double-plugged" and "single-plugged" from
1799 (6th edition, so there may yet be earlier instances!).

http://goo.gl/LZC8w
The Laboratory; or, School of Arts: Containing a Large Collection of
Secrets, Experiments and Manual Operations. London: 1799
Of Floats. p. 250ff
> You may likewise make plugs of wood, both for the *single and double
> plugged* floats ; rubbing them over with wax, as above, before you fix
> them in the quills. The *double-plugged* floats are best adapted for
> angling in the New River, which. abounds with bleak; a fish
> particularly troublesome to paste-fishers, by snatching off the bait
> before it reaches the proper depth; the *single-plugged* float will be
> of mostservice in angling there.

In a later publication (1815  http://goo.gl/qYUi0 ) these are simply
referred to as "plugged floats", so this may well be a good hit. But the
meaning is not quite the same. It's not something that "stopped or
filled with a plug", but rather a construct built on a wooden plug as a
base. So, even though these may be early hits, they may well refer to a
meaning not described in the OED.

     VS-)

PS: Found one more, from 1836 (also reprinted in 1842, but that hardly
matters):

http://goo.gl/AXQki
The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. Volume 31:42. October 1836
Notes on the Natural History and Statistics of the Island of Cerigo and
Its Dependencies. By Robert Jameson. Olives. p. 277
> It would seem that in almost every island the natives have a different
> way of expressing the oil, and that of natives of Cerigo, curious from
> its apparent antiquity, is as follows : the olives are placed on a
> nearly flat stone, and another heavy one of a square shape is rolled
> backwards and forwards on them, so as to press the fruit; when thus
> bruised, the mass is put into a large bag (made of the fibres of a
> scoperta), which is closed, and thrown into a vessel containing hot
> water, and allowed to remain there till heated ; it is then taken out
> and placed on a shallow trough with a *plugged* hole on the one side.
> The trough is elevated about two feet above the chamber floor, a man
> treads on the bag thus filled, from which the oil is expressed along
> with the warm water; as soon as the trough is nearly full, the plug is
> withdrawn, when both the substances escape into a vessel placed
> beneath, having near its bottom a *plugged* orifice.





============
OED Online Word of the Day

plugged, adj.
  1. Stopped up or filled with, or as with, a plug; (in early use) spec.
(of an explosive shell) having a plug instead of a fuse.
1872 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 184/2A plugged shell of 105 lb.
1884 Mil. Engin. (ed. 3) I. ii. 104The instructor will cause each man to
throw both land and sea service plugged hand grenades.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 603A plugged vein on each
side‥was peculiarly prominent.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 25 Aug. 12/4The competing batteries will fire two
series each of eight rounds of practice shots or plugged shell per gun
at a towed target with a mean range of 3,600 yards.
1988 J. McInerney Story of my Life i. 8Staying out all night at the Surf
Club and Zulu, waking up at five in the afternoon with plugged sinuses
and sticky hair.
2005 San Bernardino (Calif.) Sun (Nexis) 12 Jan.,A torrent still slashed
through the grounds, bursting out of another plugged drain on the property.
  2. U.S. Of a coin: having a portion replaced with less valuable
material. Now chiefly designating something worthless.
1883 Indiana Weekly Messenger (Electronic text) 26 Sept.,All that was
found in the shape of money was a plugged quarter.
1888 Texas Siftings 3 Nov.,Ticket Agent—Can't sell you a ticket for that
quarter; it's plugged.
1890 B. Hall Turnover Club 207The first speaker‥paid the price of his
folly with a plugged quarter.
1923 C. E. Mulford Black Buttes 265He says‥he'll see us both in hell
before he'll pay a plugged peso.
1936 C. Sandburg People, Yes 63He seems to think he's the frog's tonsils
but he looks to me like a plugged nickel.
1991 R. Price Back Before Day in Foreseeable Future 244If the world
turned honest at dawn, tell me what you think—would anybody give a
plugged nickel to keep us here alive?
  3. Golf. Of a ball: stuck or embedded in the place where it has landed.
1927 Times 11 Apr. 4/4The fairways‥were very swampy and a ‘plugged’ ball
was by no means a rare occurrence.
1954 Pop. Golf July 34 (caption)The 1954 Amateur Championship will be
remembered for the Joe Carr, Peter Toogood Incident of the plugged ball
in the mud patch.
1987 Golfer's Compan. June 11/1When the Colonel arrived the player asked
whether he wasn't entitled to a drop from a plugged ball in a hazard.
2003 Mercury (Hobart) (Nexis) 13 Dec. 77 Carr was allowed a very dubious
free drop for a plugged ball and went on to win the hole and match.
  4.  plugged-in adj.
  a. Connected by means of an electrical plug.
1952 French Rev. 25 282How to keep the flow of radiant French steady and
resilient through such excitement as‥overflowing bath-tubs, plugged-in
irons near fever pitch.
1970 ‘E. McGirr’ Death pays Wages vi. 126A box with a plugged-in pair of
earphones.
2005 Liverpool Daily Echo (Nexis) 8 Jan.,Sharing a bath with a plugged
in radio suddenly seems more attractive.
  b. fig. Informed; aware of current fashion, thinking, etc. Cf.
switched-on at switched adj.3b.
1967 H. S. Thompson Hell's Angels 194A handful of bartenders, waitresses
and plugged-in chicks who are known contacts.
2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 8 Oct. 92/1The most plugged-in of the oligarchs had
known for some time what the atmosphere was in the Kremlin.

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