[Ads-l] Antedating "spirit", verb and noun, = "abduct(or)" [incl. "spiriting", verbal noun]

[Joel Berson]

"spirit", verb and noun, "abduct(or)",antedatings (for several forms). _Middlesex County Records_.  Edited by John Cordy Jeaffreson.  Originally published: Clerkenwell: TheMiddlesex County Records Society, Vols. III (1888) and IV (1892).  Reprinted as _Middlesex CountyRecords (Old Series)_, Greater London Council, Vols. III (1974) and IV (1975).  Quotations from reprint. The records as reported therein are similar to a "calendar"of documents, partly paraphrased and partly quoted.  The quotations below are taken only from textwithin quotation marks. I note that with these datings the noun precedes the verb,in contrast to OED2. For "spiriting" as a verbal noun, I gave somelater examples in two previous messages to ADS-L. (Subject: "spiriting(away)".) (If anyone is wondering about the regnal years for CharlesII, after the Restoration (1660) his accession to the crown was ... uhm,antedated to 1649, the year his father was executed.) Summary: spirit, n., 1645; antedates OED2 sense 5.a, a1675--.spirit, v., 1657; antedates OED2 sense 5.a, 1666--.spirit away, v., 1658; antedates OED2 sense 6., 1670--.spiriting, (verbal) n., 1671 & 1676; not in OED3. ---------- A.  "spirit",n., sense 5.a. "abductor": 12 May 1645 ["21 Charles I"];antedates OED2 a1675--. "... to answer for the assaulting and pumping ofMargarett Emmerson upon the false report of a spiritt or an inticer orinveagler of children from their parentes, there beinge noe charge oraccusation laid against her." Vol. III, p. 181. ---------- B.  "spirit",v., sense 5.a "To kidnap, in order to transport to the plantations inAmerica."; 24 April 1657; antedates OED2 1666--. "Thou art a spirit, thou hast spirited a maide to theBarbadoes ...". Vol. III, p. 259. ---------- C.  "spirit away"(v.), sense  6. "To kidnap, carryoff, or abduct (a person)"; 13 Feb. 1657/8; antedates OED2 1670--. "... to prefere and prosecute with effect a bill ofinditement ... against Symon Harris whom hee accuseth for spiriting away oneMary Embry his sister and selling her for 48s. in mony, to be transportedbeyond the seas to Barbadoes." Vol. III, p. 269. ---------- D.  "spiriting"(verbal noun), "the act of spiriting"; not in OED3 [two quotations]-- (1)  12 April 1671 ["23Charles II"]. "... for being a confederate with William Kempthorneand Charles Carter in trapanning and spiriting of John Deane and Clement Tallison board the Shipp Assistance, intending to send them beyond sea." Vol. IV, p. 28.  (2)  8 May 1676 ["28Charles II"]. "... to answer the spiriting of John Cressop aboard aship, to transport him to Virginiaagainst his will." Vol. IV, p 72. ---------- Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org