big antedating of "gimp," n.

[George Thompson]

Here's an early "gimpy":

MURDERED IN A HALLWAY.  Butchery of Alice Welsh Suggested "Jack the Ripper's" Work.  CLERK OF A HOTEL ARRESTED.  Police, However, Do not Think They Have the Criminal – Hospital Surgeon First Called the Case One of Alcoholism.  [at 143 Thompson street]  ***  Alice Welsh was about twenty-five years old.  She had led a dissolute life, and was known at the workhouse, where she had spent several terms for drunkenness.  She was recognized yesterday by some women patients at Bellevue from the prison.  She was a frequenter of the east side saloons, and on Saturday night was in E. N. Garland’s saloon, at the corner of West Houston and Thompson Streets, with “Mickey” Welsh, a song and dance man with whom she lived until recently; Teenie and “Gimpy” Amanda, two sisters, with whom she traveled, and a tall stout man, who is described as an Italian or a Frenchman.  ****
NY Times, April 22, 1895, p. 2, col. ?

This is in Green's new dictionary, no doubt from my notes.

I do not recall that the stories of this crime states expressly that Gimpy Amanda limped.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, March 20, 2011 5:54 pm
Subject: big antedating of "gimp," n.
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> HDAS has 1925 in the sense of "a limp."
>
> 1890 _Wehman's Collection of Songs No. 29 (N.Y.: Wehamn Bros., n.d. [ca1892]
> 26: _O'Geohgan, The Gander_ Copyright 1890....In and out the house at
> night,
> O'Geoghan he would limp./ With his hissing and his gobbling and his curious
> gimp.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org