origin of the phrase: the right to privacy

Dan Goncharoff thegonch at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jan 27 21:56:34 UTC 2011


The phrase existed in English law before the Harvard Law Review used it.

JONES v. TAPLING. July 12. 1862
Cases argued and determined in the Court of Common Pleas and in ..., Volume 12
http://books.google.com/books?id=PkMwAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22right%20to%20privacy%22&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=%22right%20to%20privacy%22&f=false
"...the law does not protect the right to privacy, as it does that to
light and air."

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Dennis Baron <debaron at illinois.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at ILLINOIS.EDU>
> Subject:      origin of the phrase: the right to privacy
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Did the phrase "the right to privacy" originate with the essay of that =
> name by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis in the Harvard Law Review of =
> 1890? An OED search for the phrase yields that article as the earliest =
> cite. I'm teaching the article in my Language and Law class next week, =
> and I am curious to know if the phrase antedates that often cited =
> article? (I wouldn't be surprised if it does.)
>
>
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