Fwd: "foreign, adj. and n." - Word of the Day from the OED :: "foreign devil"

[Victor Steinbok]

Just wanted to add a bookend from a current post. This one is appears to
be a direct translation from a Chinese blog post.

http://goo.gl/ojlnP
A Locke for China Ambassador? Evaluating Obama’s Expected Choice. Posted
by Josh Chin. China Real Time Report [blog at WSJ]. March 9, 2011, 3:10 PM HKT
> “Let’s be a little more clear-headed! Americans protect American
> interests,” wrote a user called Chuanshuo billent. Warned another
> using the name Sebastian Zhao: *“Fake foreign devils are usually
> harder to deal with than real foreign devils.”*

The blog itself also brings back the issue of "real time". The header on
the page appears to say "CHINA REALTIME REPORT"--in reality, the whole
thing is printed in run-on style, but with color alternation, red for
"China" and "Report" and black for the middle "Realtime". However, links
to the blog home /within/ the blog are spelled out as "CHINA REAL TIME
REPORT". There seems to be some word play at work here as well, as the
posts are written on both sides of the Pacific, but posted with date tag
marking Hong Kong time and are aimed at China as much as the US. So
"real time" here could be quite literal, but may also be used in at
least two distinct meanings.

VS-)

On 3/4/2011 8:32 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> Foreign devil.
>
> This one is going to be unequivocal--the sources are unimpeachable, the
> content is on point and exactly 100 raw GB hits (actual only 54, with
> some duplicates) antedate all OED quotations, including a bracketed one.
> By 1830, published materials that contained the phrase had been
> published in English in China (Macao), in London and in the US. The
> earliest available in GB is 1805, with an entirely unrelated use of an
> identical phrase from 1801 and 1814. [Another 125 raw hits, with some
> duplicates, can be found with "foreign devils", most distinct from the
> other batch.]

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