"sissy" during the Civil War?

[Jonathan Lighter]

A great find, Garson. HDAS couldn't beat 1887.

I see this '82 ex. (presumably written in 1881) is of English origin.

JL


On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 6:27 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "sissy" during the Civil War?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here is a relevant instance of sissy in 1882. Jon, what date is given
> by the teachings of the hidden esoteric long-suppressed coruscating
> Vol. III of HDAS?
>
> [ref] 1882 January, Little Hearts and Little Hands: An Illustrated
> Monthly for the Children of Spiritualists, Volume 1, Number 1, Sissy's
> Reason by Violet, Start Page 10, Quote Page 10, E. W. Allen and Office
> of Little Hearts and Little Hands, London. (Google Books full view)
> [/ref]
> http://books.google.com/books?id=WCUGAAAAQAAJ&q=sissy#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Standing by his side was a fair-haired little fellow, whose girl-like
> face, long curling hair, and timid manner had won for him the name of
> "Sissy," but we shall see presently that Sissy was far from being
> weak-minded, or mean-spirited, though, as some of the boys said, he
> looked "quite a soft" -- but they only said so when Frank was away for
> Sissy and Frank were great friends.
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 2:36 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg
> <nunberg at ischool.berkeley.edu> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU>
> > Subject:      "sissy" during the Civil War?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Margaret Mitchell defended her use of "sissy" in Gone with the Wind by
> saying that "I picked up that word and the line in which it was used from a
> letter, dated 1861, from a boy to his father, explaining why he had run
> away and joined an outfit in another section. 'I just didn't want to join
> any Zouaves. I'd have felt like a sissy with those red pants etc.'" (
> http://goo.gl/T7aNe) The OED gives "sissy" from 1846 for "a sister" but
> dates the use to refer to "an effeminate person; a coward" from 1887.
> Google Books doesn't seem to have anything for that use before 1885. Is the
> word older than that or was MItchell wrong?
> >
> > http://goo.gl/T7aNe
> >
> > Geoff
> >
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