Period language in "12 Years a Slave": "soft soap", "clean shirt"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/21/2013 05:34 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>On Twitter, Nancy Friedman noted "a jarring 'OK' in an 1841 scene":
>
>https://twitter.com/Fritinancy/status/401848725644902400

I was jarred by that, but forgot it later.  It's hard for me to take
notes in the dark, and I trust no one will comment on my memory.  But
if that plus perhaps "clean shirt" [is anyone mining for that?] is
all there is, I congratulate McQueen, Pitt, the other producers, and
the screenwriters.

Joel


>Benjamin Schmidt, who has been analyzing the script for anachronisms
>using Google Ngram data, thinks that the "OK" line was ad-libbed.
>
>--bgz
>
>On Sat, Dec 21, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > To comment on only the language used in "12 Years a Slave", there was
> > just one scene where my ears pricked up:
> >
> > "soft soap" ("to flatter"; the OED2 definition needs some
> > expansion).  OED2 has in 1840, and 1843 from Bartlett's _Dict. of
> > Americanisms_.
> >
> > "[come in with a] clean shirt" (morally or ethically spotless).  Not
> > in OED yet!?  (Although my meagre printed resources and a very
> > superficial Google search also don't turn this up -- have I created
> > something out of whole cloth?)
> >
> > Solomon Northup was kidnapped in 1841, and published his memoir in
> > 1853.   So "soft soap" is possible, and in fact it appears in an 1855
> > edition of "Twelve Years a Slave" (GBooks, full view).
> >
> > "Clean shirt" doesn't appear (in that edition).  When did it arise in
> > the sense I am supposing?
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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