[Ads-l] Early newspaper sightings of "(bull)shit"

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jan 2 23:59:05 UTC 2015


Ben: Back in March 2014 I posted a February 1914 instance of "bull
shit" used as an expletive ( I think) from a Congressional Hearing.
Perhaps you omitted it because it was not in a newspaper or not
interesting enough though you do include some other non-newspaper
instances.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2014-March/131488.html

Year: 1914
Title: Conditions in the Copper Mines of Michigan: Hearings Before a
Subcommittee of the Committee on Mines and Mining, House of
Representatives, Sixty-Third Congress, Second Session
Hearings held February 16-21, 1914
Quote Page 942

http://books.google.com/books?id=xUhJAAAAYAAJ&q=bull#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
He kept me in the room, told me. "I am going to bust your head because
you put some bull shit in the papers." "What do you mean by that?"
[End excerpt]

Garson


On Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 5:01 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Early newspaper sightings of "(bull)shit"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The c.1910 usage of "bullshit" by T. S. Eliot is known only from a single c=
> opy of the poem in question at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library (in the Ez=
> ra Pound Papers).  Someday I'd like to look at the poem at Beinecke.  =0A=
> =0A=
> The other early possible-usages discussed by Ben and Bonnie and Jon and Dou=
> g are fascinating.  Probably there is some kind of tradition of typesetters=
>  and the like amusing themselves through off-color tinkering with texts.=0A=
> =0A=
> Getting back to literary uses of "shit," I think Hemingway was also a big u=
> ser of the word.=0A=
> =0A=
> Fred Shapiro=0A=
> =0A=
> =0A=
> ________________________________________=0A=
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Ben Zi=
> mmer [bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM]=0A=
> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2015 11:25 AM=0A=
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=0A=
> Subject: Early newspaper sightings of "(bull)shit"=0A=
> =0A=
> My latest post for Strong Language, a new group blog on swearing and=0A=
> taboo vocabulary, is on early appearances of "shit" and "bullshit"=0A=
> slipped into American newspapers:=0A=
> =0A=
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=3Dhttp://stronglang.wordpress.co=
> m/2015/01/02/when-shit-hits-the-newspapers/&k=3DdpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D=
> %3D%0A&r=3DwZwFUjd8GPnYGI%2BVs7vDUPSolog9LUYFEowXF2Rz1AY%3D%0A&m=3D1TOy5vSb=
> rbi2idoUV7SAKVtKG0Tww9bkDFsaZPdQme8%3D%0A&s=3D87c2c9f8057616744a3ea9d794d8c=
> 3e7443bcef7fb507b3b7851b9a22036d5d0=0A=
> =0A=
> I include Bonnie Taylor-Blake's two excellent "bullshit" discoveries=0A=
> and contribute a few of my own finds from the databases.=0A=
> =0A=
> --bgz=0A=
> =0A=
> --=0A=
> Ben Zimmer=0A=
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=3Dhttp://benzimmer.com/&k=3DdpQi=
> sR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=3DwZwFUjd8GPnYGI%2BVs7vDUPSolog9LUYFEowXF2R=
> z1AY%3D%0A&m=3D1TOy5vSbrbi2idoUV7SAKVtKG0Tww9bkDFsaZPdQme8%3D%0A&s=3D170da2=
> 81175a60a3d25187a74549c82b4c9f2dac2b73d878bb7e00104c35a5f4=0A=
> =0A=
> ------------------------------------------------------------=0A=
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=
> =3Dhttp://www.americandialect.org/&k=3DdpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=
> =3DwZwFUjd8GPnYGI%2BVs7vDUPSolog9LUYFEowXF2Rz1AY%3D%0A&m=3D1TOy5vSbrbi2idoU=
> V7SAKVtKG0Tww9bkDFsaZPdQme8%3D%0A&s=3D722862f9e4f86dbe533158dfda9eeaeaca1d4=
> b257cc6b5821d0668464b1c2870=0A=
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list