late = 'died long ago'

[Joel S. Berson]

I think a little further searching for "the late" in the 1700s and
earlier, particularly when associated with an office or position,
will show frequent use to mean "recently former" rather than
(recently) deceased. OED "late, adj.1 (and n.2) and n.3" --
      sense 5.b., That was recently (what is implied by the n.) but is not now.
1689   A. Wood Life 7 Nov.,   A late Roman Catholic
schoolmaster..hath embraced his former persuasion, viz. protestancy.
[This late schoolmaster surely was alive when he embraced protestancy.]
      sense 6, Recent in date; that has recently happened or
occurred; recently made, performed, completed; of recent times;
belonging to a recent period. Now Obs. of persons ...
1600   Shakespeare Henry V ii. ii. 60   Who are the late Commissioners?

Joel

At 1/22/2013 06:53 PM, Tyler Schnoebelen wrote:
>Google Ngrams might be one way to look at how "The Late" has been used. (For
>example, "The Late Mr" is a reasonable search term for exploring:
>http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=the+late+mr&year_start=1600&yea
>r_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=).
>
>Having suggested this as a data source for examining how "late" has changed
>over time, I will stop far short and just note a couple favorite items:
>
>- Back in the late 1700s, it seems like a common use of "The late Mr." to
>talk about marriages (if the bride's father was dead, for example) or estate
>sales.
>
>- Fielding published "The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild
>the Great" in 1743-Jonathan Wild had died in 1725. Wikipedia suggests that
>Fielding was working on this before 1741, though.
>
>- "The Theological and Philological Works of the Late Mr. John Toland. Being
>a System of Jewish, Gentile and Mahometan Christianity" was originally
>published in 1732. Toland died in 1722.
>http://books.google.com/books?id=d1Fl7tDqIUwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&
>q&f=false
>
>Tyler
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>Subject:      Re: late = 'died long ago' (UNCLASSIFIED)
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>I ran across it in a "How to Speak Southern" type of book, in the context of
>a bad joke, along the lines of:
>
>Northerners call it "The Civil War"
>Southerners call it "The War Between the States"
>True Southerners call it "The War of Northern Aggression"
>Pockets of South Carolina call it "The Late Unpleasantness"
>
>
>This was in the late 1980s, well after the surge of such books in the Jimmy
>Carter years.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>....
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > > Subject:      late = 'died long ago'
> > > >
> > >
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > -
> > > -
> > > > --------
> > > >
> > > > CNN mentions that Mr. Obama quoted "the late President" in his
> > first
> > > > Inaugural address.
> > > >
> > > > Which President was it?
> > > >
> > > > Abraham Lincoln.
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle
>the
> > > > truth."
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > > Caveats: NONE
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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