Puritan euphemisms

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/24/2012 11:22 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>So, what, did Arthur Dimmesdale walk up to Hester Prynne and say, "what
>up, bitch?"

Read the book!  :-)  And see what a writer in the 1840s -- about when
Jon sees American colloquial writing becoming other than rare* --
thought colloquial American speech was like in the 1640s.

P.S.  My reading in the genre approaches none, so the only book
before, say, Washington Irving** I could think of was "The Sot--weed
Factor" (1708).  It does not contain "egad", "zounds", or "jiminy".  (GBooks.)

* I think some writers on American literary history see a significant
increase in the number of works in the 1830s.

** Irving was a bit before the 1840s, of course.  I see "Salmagundi" was 1807.

Joel

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