[Ads-l] pop a cap: big antedating

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Sep 3 00:13:50 UTC 2015


On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 7:18 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> > "bursted a cap" from 1839
>
> I'll take it.
>

If you've bursted a cap, then you've missed, apparently.


American Slavery as it is
https://books.google.com/books?id=bSITAAAAYAAJ
American Anti-Slavery Society, ‎Theodore Dwight Weld - 1839 - ‎Read
"While [Chamberlayne and the Col. were] standing a few paces from each
other, Lafayette came up, and remarked to the Col., 'If you spill my
brother's blood, I will spill yours,' about which time Chamberlayne's
pistol[, which the Col. had been given,] fired, and immediately Lafayette
_bursted a cap_ at him [the Col.]. The Colonel turned to Lafayette, and
said, 'Lafayette, you intend to kill,' and discharged his pistol at him.
The ball struck the pistol of Lafayette and glanced into his arm. ..."

Extra Globe - Page 221
https://books.google.com/books?id=1gIbAAAAYAAJ
Francis Preston Blair - 1839 - ‎Read
On the 22d inst. about forty half and full blood Cherokee Indians came to
the house of John Ridge, esq. a distinguished Cherokee, and just about
daylight entered the chamber of Mr. Ridge unperceived by any of the family,
and _bursted a cap_ at his head, which awoke him, who then saw and felt his
impending fate, no doubt, and called upon his assailants for mercy.

-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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



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