antedating "calvary"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Years ago I brought up the endemic Southern U.S. habit of saying "calvary"
for "cavalry."  The earliest printed ex. I had encountered was from 1918-19.

Here are some big antedatings:

1836 _Metropolitan Magazine_ (July) 273: Don Julien had commanded a calvary
regiment.

1857 _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_  (Nov.) 605: One native irregular
calvary regiment.

1881  _Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York_
(Albany: Weed, Parsons) 399: This is particularly the case with the
Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry and *Calvary Troop* D.

GB reveals a surprising number of exx. from just the past few years - from
publishers like Cornell U. P.

JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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