Still Further Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Am I the only one who finds the contrast between "high jacks" and
"bootleggers" amusing, given the similarity of the source of the two terms?

DanG


On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 10:45 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Still Further Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> hijack / hijacking (OED 1923)
>
> 1915 _Duluth News Tribune_ 26 Dec. 5 (America's Historical Newspapers)
>  The "High Jacks" are fake agents who hold up caravans of contraband
> liquor, confiscate cargoes and dispose of them to thirsty tipples.  Reports
> to agents here are to the effect that "high jacking" has been very
> successful, owing to usual nervousness of bootleggers, who are in most
> cases easily frightened into abandoning their illicit cargoes and scurrying
> for cover.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> _______________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Nathaniel Sharpe [nts at BETHLEHEMBOOKS.COM]
> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 8:44 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"
>
> Going off Jon's suggestion, I did a search of contemporary Oklahoma
> papers and came up with these 1916 instances of the "illegal kind:"
>
> Date: Wednesday, August 9, 1916  Paper: Tulsa World (Tulsa, OK)  Volume:
> XI  Issue: 280  Page: 1, Tells of Shooting Osage "High Jack"
> (GenealogyBank.com)
> According to a story told by R. W. Smith, an oil man of this city, there
> will be one less "high-jack" to contend with in the Osage hills for a
> time at least, as a result of his marksmanship, displayed in a pitched
> battle on the old ridge road late Sunday afternoon.
> Smith says he was showing some of his friends a lease near Keystone and
> was returning to Tula when he was confronted by a lone highwayman who
> commanded Smith and his party to "stick-em up."
>
> Date: Saturday, April 1, 1916  Paper: Tulsa World (Tulsa, OK)  Volume:
> XI  Issue: 169  Page: Four, The Man About Town (GenealogyBank.com)
> Knowing their immense wealth, pickpockets would immediately high-jack
> the whole crowd.
>
>
> Nat
>
> On 2/11/2013 7:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Have you tried "high-jack/ing/er"?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 7:56 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Hijack" / "Hijacking"
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> On Feb 11, 2013, at 7:42 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> >>
> >>> hijack, hijacking (OED 1923)
> >>>
> >>> 1918 _Miami District Daily News_ (Miami, Oklahoma) 19 May 4 (America's
> >> Historical Newspapers)  Mulcting four soldiers of $35 by the Joplin
> >> authorities might be termed legalized "Hijacking."
> >> ...which certainly suggests the illegal kind has already been widely
> known
> >> by then
> >>
> >> LH
> >>
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