slight antedating: "million-dollar wound" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I see he uses the phrase in quote marks -- possibly indicating that he is repeating it from someplace he heard or read it??

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2014 11:03 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: slight antedating: "million-dollar wound" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: slight antedating: "million-dollar wound"
> (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> 
> Amazing and incredible (in the current sense), Bill.  Hunter says he
> based his book largely on notes made during the Civil War. Copyright
> date of the copy I see is 1904.
> 
> He is allegedly the coiner of the phrase "Billy Yank" (which as a
> "literary" term isn't in HDAS).
> 
> More significantly: no attestations between 1904 and late in WW2 (much
> less before 1904).
> 
> Cf. the Civil War ex. of "brass" (commissioned officers) in HDAS.
> 
> Independent inspiration or real continuity of usage?  I suspect the
> former.
> 
> JL
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) <
> william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
> 
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill CIV (US)"
> <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL>
> > Subject:      Re: slight antedating: "million-dollar wound"
> (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> > ---------
> >
> > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > Caveats: NONE
> >
> > From Google Books:
> >
> > Alexander Hunter _Johnny Reb and Billy Yank_ New York, Washington:
> > Neale Pu= blishing Co. 1905 p 549 "In the parlance of our camp, I had
> > a "million-dollar wound," which meant a=  long furlough with no
> danger
> > to life or limb."
> >
> >
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=3D-
> 7MTAAAAYAAJ&pg=3DPA549&dq=3D%22mil
> > lion+=
> >
> dollar+wound%22#v=3Donepage&q=3D%22million%20dollar%20wound%22&f=3Dfal
> > dollar+se
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > >Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> > > Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:19 PM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject: slight antedating: "million-dollar wound"
> > >=20
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >---------------
> > > --------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      slight antedating: "million-dollar wound"
> > >
> > >--------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> > >--
> > > --------
> > >=20
> > > OED: Feb., 1945.
> > >=20
> > > 1944 in _Augusta [Ga.] Chronicle_  (Jan. 1, 1945) 1: WITH AMERICAN
> > >TROOPS IN BELGIUM... "It's nothing much. Just a hunka shrapnel. We
> > >call  that the million-dollar wound up here. It doesn't kill you,
> but
> > >it gets  you out of the foxholes for a bit."
> > >=20
> > > JL
> > >=20
> > > --
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > >truth."
> > >=20
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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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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