Antedatings and new sense of "cut the stick"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/15/2014 11:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > It sounds more like the words of a sailor as wrote by Melville.
>
>It's all relative. It doesn't sound too much like Melville either.
>
>JL

But closer.  I was thinking of Omoo and Typee.  But at the time I
read them I was also looking for OED submissions, and don't recall
"cut the stick" there either.

Joel


>On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 11:24 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Antedatings and new sense of "cut the stick"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I'll be blowed if the below'd is Nathaniel Hawthorne.
> >
> > (1)  I've read every one of NH's short pieces, the American
> > Notebooks, True Stories, three of his completed novels, and two of
> > his incomplete novels, and I do not remember this.
> >
> > (2)  I admit I do not remember every word in what I've read, but as
> > one of the fiercely competitive antedaters I'm positive that if I had
> > read "I'm blowed if he cut stick" I would have sent it to the list or to
> > Jesse.
> >
> > (3)  It doesn't read like anything NH would write.
> >
> > (4)  What character could he have put such dialogue into the mouth
> > of?  I can't imagine.  But I haven't read much of his later
> > works.  It would have to be dialogue, either in a novel or in a
> > quotation, such as in the later notebooks or the letters.
> >
> > (5)   It sounds more like the words of a sailor as wrote by Melville.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 1/15/2014 03:47 AM, Hugo wrote:
> > >The same meaning is found in the US, but also another sense of "to die".
> > >
> > >Maximilian Schele de Vere's Americanisms; the English of the New World
> > >(1872) says on page 594:
> > >
> > >[Begin]
> > >To cut one's sticky used in England instead of to leave, has been
> > >enlarged in its meaning by American vigor of speech, and here often
> > >means to die. " I'm blowed if he cut stick" (N. Hawthorne.)
> > >[End]
> > >
> > >https://archive.org/stream/americanismsengl00scheuoft#page/594/mode/1up
> > >https://archive.org/details/americanismsengl00scheuoft
> > >
> > >I'm not sure where the N[athaniel?] Hawthorne quotation comes from.
> >
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