Richard (alias "Long Dick") Chasmore

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not only is there no reason to suspect an antedating, "long" used to mean
tall.

As in Long John Silver.

JL
On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Richard (alias "Long Dick") Chasmore
>
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>
> To my 21st-century eyes, the following is indelicate (the OED calls
> it "coarse"), but who knows what it meant in 1656?
>
> "In both [letters] I presented you with a Narritue of my proceeding
> with one Rich: Chasmore (alias Long Dick) lately of Pawtuxet. He was
> infamous for Buggerie, 2 Indians of Pawtuxet affirming [th]t they saw
> him in [th]e Act the one in [th]e Winter the other in [th]e Spring."  p. 6.
>
> The Buggerie was committed "one [i.e., on] his heifer".  p. 3.
>
>  From a letter dated "Providence 1. 10. 56 (so calld)".  [1656;
> probably December (10th month of the Old Style year), but perhaps October.]
>
> In Bradford Fuller Swan, _The Case of Richard Chasmore alias Long
> Dick_.  Providence: Printed for the Society [of Colonial Wars in the
> State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations], Dec. 30, 1944.
>
> The letter was written by ... Roger Williams.
>
> ? Antedates OED "Dick, n.1""  "3.b. The penis. coarse", 1891
> (Farmer's _Slang_), and then 1929?  Well, probably not.
>
> Joel
>
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