St. Louis and the South

[Jonathan Lighter]

> "The mingling together of blacke and white colours do..produce a swart
and brown

Whoa! They couldn't tell brown from gray??

JL


On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 9:26 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: St. Louis and the South
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4/15/2014 01:31 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> >On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 8:48 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > > Why do you think they were called "the Browns"?
> >
> >
> >Because they wore brown stockings as part of their original uniforms.
>
> Oh.  And I thought it was because, as Wilson said, their seating
> didn't segregate people of color.  Black + white = brown.  (OED
> Online, 1.a., quotation of 1607: "The mingling together of blacke and
> white colours do..produce a swart and brown ...")
>
> Joel
>
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