"colonist", "colonial" -- and antedating the latter?

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sat Jul 2 00:28:32 UTC 2011


At 7/1/2011 07:21 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>If the person in question is the child or grandchild of someone who
>emigrated to America, is he still a colonist?  At what point does he
>become a native?

colonist 1.b. An inhabitant of a colony.  As late as can be for the
Americans:  "1775    E. Burke Speech Amer. Taxation 4   When..you
revived the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds of the
Colonists with new jealousy."

colonial, B. n, 1. An inhabitant of a colony.

BTW, the OED dates this sense only back to 1865!  Really?  But if you
want to have fun with GBooks misdatings, try searching it for
"colonials" (quoted), before 1800.  It seems GBooks has dated
publications to the date of the publications those publications name
in their titles!

Books containing "colonials" (noun):

"Thoughts and sentiments on the evil and wicked traffic of the
slavery and commerce of the human species. : Humbly submited to the
inhabitants of Great-Britain by Ottabah Cugoano, a native of Africa.
London, July 1787", by Ottobah Cugoano, London, 1787.  (Title and
date from the Harvard catalog).  GBooks, page 91.  "But it is
otherwise with the Colonials".

"The St. Domingo Review ... ", whose subtitle mentions a "to" date of
1798, and which certainly has rude enough type (it'was printed in
Kingston, Jamaica) to be that early.

Seemingly rare before 1800.

Joel

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