"turn chicken"; "chicken," adj.: antedatings

[Jonathan Lighter]

1889 _Boston Globe_ (Feb. 23) 6: The eyes were wide open and seemed to stare
straight at the assassin, who was for a moment strongly tempted to fly.

"No, no, I must finish the job. It won't do to turn chicken now."

Another English tale of criminality.

Nevertheless, the evidence remains overwhelming that the phrase became
common in the U.S. only after ca1935.

JL

On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 3:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "turn chicken"; "chicken," adj.: antedatings
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I.
>
> 1907 Owen Masters in _The Advance_ (July 11) 41:  Nevertheless she rose
> intending to go back to the house, when she heard the hoarse voice of the
> discharged workman=97Job Marsh.
>
> "Hello, matey," he said. "You're 'arf-an-hour late. I was thinking that
> you'd turned chicken."
>
>
> "Chicken yourself!" retorted another voice. "We ain't got to meet Moore
> til=
> l
> four o'clock, an' I've been having a say to the cashier. I tell you the
> manager's got us in a tight place an' I don't feel healthy. He swears we go
> to limbo if we don't make a clean breast of it. The cashier's dead nuts on
> him as well."
>
>
> Remarkable as the earliest "turn chicken" by far, as well as for being
> British.
>
> II.
>
>
> 1932 Virgil Markham _The Devil Drives_ (N.Y.: Knopf) 88: "Do I look like a
> sap?" I asked. "It's not what I want--"
>
> "Getting chicken on account of Raffy?" she mocked. "Well, we can go some
> place where they don't know us, can't we?"
>
>
> This looks real (from GB), but it's only a snippet.
>
>
> JL
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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