Antedating of "First Lady"

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 19, 2013, at 8:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> The "first," i.e., pre-eminent, lady of the nation.
>
> Not "the first lady" as a lexicalized title.

True enough.  I remember learning from Bertrand Russell's "On Descriptions" (Mind, 1905) that George IV was known as "the first gentleman of Europe":

=================
If a is identical with b, whatever is true of the one is true of the other, and either may be substituted for the other in any proposition without altering the truth or falsehood of that proposition. Now George IV wished to know whether Scott was the author of Waverley; and in fact Scott was the author of Waverley. Hence we may substitute Scott for the author of `Waverley', and thereby prove that George IV wished to know whether Scott was Scott. Yet an interest in the law of identity can hardly be attributed to the first gentleman of Europe.
=================

And he was not so called because he was married to the President of Europe.

LH

>
> I wrote on this for the Atlantic many years ago
>
> The originally journalistic title did not become a cliche' until well into
> the 20th C.  And IIRC, Eleanor Roosevelt was the first to be routinely
> designated as "the first lady." Same goes for "First Lady X."
>
> States got "first ladies" even later than that.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 9:38 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Antedating of "First Lady"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> first lady (OED 1853)
>>
>> According to Wikipedia, the Boston Courier, June 12, 1843, p. 4, wrote
>> abou=
>> t Martha Washington that "The first lady of the nation still preserved the
>> =
>> habits of early life. Indulging in no indolence, she left the pillow at
>> daw=
>> n, and after breakfast, retired to her chamber for an hour for the study
>> of=
>> the scriptures and devotion".
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
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>> 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."
>
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