[Ads-l] Origin of exclamation Great Scott discussed at Slate

[Peter Reitan]

Antedating Great Scott(?)

The Spirit of Democracy, March 7, 1845, page 2, column 5 (Chronicling America).
THE BANK BILL.
The great fine-and shearing (financiering) scheme of Mr. Kelly, has become the law of the land; and this bill of seventy five sections we promised to publish, should it finally passed into law.  Great Scott! is it possible that we ever promised to publish this law.

> Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 12:32:30 -0400
> From: adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Origin of exclamation Great Scott discussed at Slate
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Origin of exclamation Great Scott discussed at Slate
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Today Forrest Wickman at Slate thoughtfully explored the origin of the
> exclamation "Great Scott". Jesse Sheidlower, Michael Quinion, Fred
> Shapiro, and Garson O'Toole and others were mentioned /
> acknowledged.The character Doc Brown used the expression in the movie
> series "Back to the Future".
> 
> Website: Slate
> Column Name: Lexicon Valley - A Blog About Language
> Article: Great Scott! Who Was Scott? The Origin of Doc Brown=E2=80=99s
> Favorite Phrase, Explained.
> Author: Forrest Wickman
> Timestamp: October 21 2015 8:02 AM
> 
> Short Link: http://slate.me/1ZXEMSu
> 
> http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/10/21/great_scott_who_was_sc=
> ott_on_back_to_the_future_day_the_origin_of_doc_brown.html
> 
> When Forrest contacted me I pointed him to resources like Michael
> Quinion's excellent article:
> http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gre4.htm
> 
> Barry Popik has done valuable work on "Great Scott" as mentioned by
> Fred at Freakonomics:
> http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/08/who-first-said-great-scott-and-who-is-sc=
> ott/
> 
> Back in August 2011 I posted to the list the earliest instance of the
> exclamation "Great Scott" in 1856. The OED entry was updated in
> September 2013 and the 1856 cite was listed first; apparently it is
> still the earliest known.
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-August/111173.html
> 
> Garson
> 
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