"chicken-livered" antedatings, and "turn chicken"

[Joel S. Berson]

1804 -- "I am resolved, and they will find me no chicken livered
fellow ..."  Corrector {New York, NY], published as The Corrector;
Date: 03-31-1804; Issue: 2; Page: 6.  EAN.  Antedates
OED/1989  1872--.  Although the OED has "chicken-hearted" from 1681.

1847 -- "Shame! shame upon the chicken livered wretch!"  Vermont
Patriot, (Montpelier, VT) Thursday, April 01, 1847; Issue 1106/66;
col D. 19th C. U.S. Newspapers.  (And 12 additional "chicken-livered"
through 1899.)

1895 -- "Turn chicken-livered" -- Rocky Mountain News, (Denver, CO)
Sunday, April 21, 1895; pg. 18; Issue 111; col H.  19th C. U.S. Newspapers.

"I'm a gone chicken" shows up in 1835 and on into 1897.  19th C. U.S.
Newspapers.

Joel

At 9/6/2011 03:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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