Antedatings of "haywire"

[paul johnson]

  *Of a person, circumstances, etc.: in an emotional state, tangled, involved, confused, crazy: 1934)*If you've ever been running farm equipment in a field and pick up a dropped strand of baling wire and have it wrap tightly around every damn thing in sight, involving somehow raising and getting under the equipment with a wire cutter and slowly clip a strand, pull, clip, pull, clip, seemingly for hours and since everything is so tightly wrapped you have to take off your gloves which guaranties you get out from under with well bloodied fingers, you will understand that definition

On 9/25/2013 2:37 AM, Hugo wrote:
> "haywire" (OED A. n., wire for binging hay, etc.: 1917)
> Antedated to 1886.
>
> "haywire" (OED B. 1. adj., poorly equipped, roughly contrived, inefficient: 1905)
> Not antedated.
>
> "haywire" (OED B. 2. a. adj. Of a person, circumstances, etc.: in an emotional state, tangled, involved, confused, crazy: 1934)
> Antedated to 1928.
>
> "haywire" (OED B. 2. b. adj. to go haywire: 1929)
> Antedated to 1905.
>
> ---
>
> "haywire" (OED A. n., wire for binging hay, etc.: 1917)
>
> Fort Worth daily gazette., May 06, 1886, Page 7, Image 7, advert for W. A. Huffman Implement Company:
>
> [Begin]
> MOWERS AND HAY RAKES, HAY PRESSES, HAY TIES AND HAY WIRE.
> [End]
>
> Short: http://goo.gl/VZsjlu
> Long: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86064205/1886-05-06/ed-1/seq-7/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=11&words=HAYWIRE&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=haywire&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
>
> ---
>
> "haywire" (OED B. 2. a. adj. Of a person, circumstances, etc.: in an emotional state, tangled, involved, confused, crazy: 1934)
>
> "Oh, Ranger!": A Book about the National Parks - Page 1, Horace Marden Albright, ‎Frank J. Taylor - 1928:
>
> [Begin]
> "I got phone orders at Tuolumne Meadows to pack up and come over Sunrise Trail. Started at sunrise. Everything haywire, including cranky pack horse which kept getting off trail. Phoned in at Vernal Falls station. Ordered to hurry down, help catch two auto thieves which broke jail just after breakfast. Assigned to guard Coulterville Road.
> [End]
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SmOmAAAAIAAJ&q=haywire#v=snippet&q=haywire&f=false
>
> ---
>
> "haywire" (OED B. 2. b. adj. to go haywire: 1929)
>
> Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Monthly Journal, Vol. XXXIX, May 1905, Number 5, page 423, by J. W. Reading:
>
> [Begin]
> The engineer who makes of his calling
> a burden, who sees nothing but the wrong,
> or imposition as he may term it, who fan-
> cies perhaps that the whole world has con-
> spired against him, who commences to
> damn things as soon as he appears upon
> the scene of his labors, and continues to
> damn everything, including his train
> crew, the engine, the officers, and almost
> everything, animate and inanimate, while
> making the round trip, is working out his
> own destiny, and it is but charitable to
> say of such a man that he is not well, his
> digestion has gone " hay wire " as it were.
> [End]
>
> http://archive.org/details/brotherhoodloco00sgoog
> Read online: http://archive.org/stream/brotherhoodloco00sgoog#page/n435/mode/1up
> Cover page for date confirmation: http://archive.org/stream/brotherhoodloco00sgoog#page/n375/mode/1up
>
> ---
>
> Hugo
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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