"great-phew"

[Joel S. Berson]

Now that I've got your attention ... I find that:

All 4 instances before 1909 are false, 2 due to cropping by Google
Books of the leftmost two letters of lines, 2 due to non-recognition
of multi-column text.  I was hoping it would mean something like a
"bashaw of three tails".

Joel

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