"shuggie-shue", n., 1775

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Aug 22 00:34:43 UTC 2013


A word I did not know, but intend to use in casual conversation three
times.  As soon as the snows arrive.

"No carriage goes with so easy a motion as these sleighs do, having
none of the jolting motion of a wheel-carriage; but much resembling
the motion of what we used to call a shuggie-shew, or a vessel before
a fine wind."

Patrick M'Robert, _A Tour through Part of the North Provinces of
America ..._ (Edinburgh, 1776), 34.  In Letter VI, dated Philadelphia
and Elizabeth town, 1775.  GBooks (offprint from the _Pennsylvania
Magazine of History and Biography_, April, 1935; ed. by Carl
Bridenbaugh).  The quotation may be on page 47 in the 1776 edition.

"shuggie-shue, N." new sense (neither a pastime of swinging nor
"jocularly" the gallows nor a see-saw).  Also, the only OED (2nd ed.)
quotations are 1653 and 1836.

Joel

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