Early-ish antedating of 'willies' meaning DT's

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great citation for "the willies" used with the sense of "DTs",
Geoffrey. Thanks for sharing it. I found the same text you located in
a different 2011 collection that is in preview mode in Google Books.
The word "the willies" occurred in two separate passages that were
dated February 13, 1904 and March 6, 1909 respectively. The latter
passage is the one you already discovered.

The passages below complement the other evidence, I think. In the
previous message I sent to the list I think that the citation dated
October 21, 1893 contained "the willys" as "DTs" with very little
ambiguity. There was an accompanying link into GB so the full context
is readable.

Year: 2011
Title: Irresponsible Freaks, Highball Guzzlers & Unabashed Grafters: A
Bob Edwards Chrestomathy
Author: Bob Edwards
Editor: James Martin
Publisher: Brindle and Glass, Canada
Database: Google Books Preview

http://books.google.com/books?id=CdTlGxSc3FUC&q=willies#v=snippet&

Quote Page 215 (passage below)

[Begin excerpt]
I open this letter to mention that the president of this institution
has just been brought in with a horrible attack of the Willies. He is
in bad shape and the buzzards are wheeling in the sky. Don't forget to
address my letters to "J. Montmorency Curzon, Tanglefoot Hall.”
(February 13, 1904)
[End excerpt]

Quote Page 233 (passage below)

[Begin excerpt]
Peter J. McGonigle, editor of the popular Midnapore Gazette, has not
had an issue of his paper out for several weeks. He has been down to
High River on a business trip. As is well known, a business trip to
High River involves considerable drinking, and it will be distressing
to many of Mr. McGonigle's friends to learn that he forgot his pledge,
and, as the local preacher put it, went the whole hog. He was so near
the willies that they shut down on giving him any more booze, and he
became a perfect nuisance round the St. George Hotel, where he was
stopping. . . . (March 6, 1909)
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 12:04 PM, Geoffrey Steven Nathan
<geoffnathan at wayne.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Geoffrey Steven Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
> Subject:      Early-ish antedating of 'willies' meaning DT's
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> While staying in a hotel in Stratford, Ontario this past week I was leafing through some old library discard books they had placed in the room. In the following:
>
> The Best of Bob Edwards, edited by Hugh A. Dempsey, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton. 1975.
>
> I found the following:
>
> 'Peter J. McGonigle, editor of the popular Midnapore Gazette, has not had an issue of his paper out for several weeks. He has been down to High River on a business trip. As is well known, a business trip to High River involves considerable drinking, and it will be distressing to many of Mr. McGonigle's friends to learn that he forgot his pledge, and, as the local preacher put it, went the whole hog. He was so near the *willies* that they shut down on giving him any more booze, and he became a perfect nuisance round the St. George Hotel, where he was stopping.'(p. 95)
>
> footnote dates it as March 6, 1909. originally From Calgary Eye Openers, 'variously published in Calgary, High River,  Port Arthur and Winnipeg.'
>
> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> Faculty Liaison, C&IT
> and Professor, Linguistics Program
> http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
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>
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