"blowing" = "blowen" (and the OED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

I have no evidence (independent of Matsell's unreliable _Vocabulum_) that
either _blowing_ or _blowen_ was ever current in the U.S.

Hence no HDAS entries.

JL

On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 10:42 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "blowing" = "blowen" (and the OED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks, Robin.  I did have HDAS if not on my bookshelf at least open
> upon my desk ... well, upon Widener Library's Reference Room's
> desk... as I was investigating its spurious 1824 quotation for
> "fancy-girl".  But it has no entry for "blowing" -- nor any relevant
> sense under the verb "blow" -- and I would not have thought to look
> for "blowe...".  Nor did I find "blowing" in the OED, since I was
> intimidated by its 949 quotations containing that word; even starting
> at "blow..." only removed 55.
>
> The OED2 subsumes "blowing" under "blowen" ("Forms:  Also blowing"),
> and I assume therefore its entry should include quotations with
> either spelling.  Its earliest citation is 1818 (for "blowen", from
> Vaux).  The 130-year antedating in Thomas Shadwell's _The Squire of
> Alsatia_ should be added (if confirmed; a 1688 edition is in EEBO).
>
> Joel
>
> At 10/8/2014 02:39 AM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
> >...
> >1821 J. Burrowes _Life in St. George's Fields ..._  p. [25].
> >
> >"Blowing, a fancy girl".  (This is within what Burrowes presents as
> >"A Slang Dictionary" to interpret his character's speech.)
> >
> >Imprint London: 1821.  GBooks, full view.  [I have not tried to trace
> >"blowing" as a British "slang" term.]
> >   ...
> >Joel
> >
>
> >--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >"Blowing" is the earlier form of the more familiar "blowen",
> >earliest citation I think 1688 in Thomas Shadwell's _The Squire of
> >Alsatia_. Although the "blowing" form is found as late as Byron's
> >_Don Juan_ (1811), it has been more-or-less replaced by "blowen" by
> >the end of the eighteenth century.  As can be seen by tracing the
> >shift between the two terms in the course of the evolution of the
> >five editions of Grose's _Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_ between
> >1785 and 1823.
> >
> >Not just English but American too.  There's a succinct entry in
> >HDAS, which everyone has on their bookshelves (or ought to have).
> >
> >Robin
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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