"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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