[Ads-l] fu lion - 1913, foo dog - 1915, foo lion - 1918

[Benjamin Barrett]

Nice antedating! There must have been something happening in this time period to cause this cluster of hits. The Wikipedia article suggests either 佛 or 福 as the origin. It would be great to find the true source.

Also, today, I ran across an instance of “foo” that the rfc link is talking about (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar>), and realized I had seen it in the past. People working on Wiki projects use the term “foo” to mean “something." For example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conditional_tables <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conditional_tables>

=====
Here, {{{variable_foo}}} is checked to see if it is defined with a non-blank value. 
=====

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA


> On 16 Feb 2016, at 11:48, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fu lion - 1913, foo dog - 1915, foo lion - 1918
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Advertisement for the Oriental Importer=2C A. A. Vantine & Co.=2C New York =
> Tribune=2C April 5=2C 1912=2C page 5 (Chronicling America):=20
> 
> "Imported from Vantine from the shores of the Inland Sea . . . Japanese Foo=
> Dog images."
> 
>> Date: Mon=2C 15 Feb 2016 18:14:30 -0800
>> From: mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM
>> Subject: fu lion - 1913=2C foo dog - 1915=2C foo lion - 1918
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> =20
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------=
> ------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      fu lion - 1913=2C foo dog - 1915=2C foo lion - 1918
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>> =20
>> Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_guardian_lions) =3D
>> provides a link to a paper on =3DE2=3D80=3D9Cfoo=3DE2=3D80=3D9D (not on t=
> he Oxford =3D
>> Dictionary site=2C though the word =3DE2=3D80=3D9Cfoo=3DE2=3D80=3D9D evid=
> ently is =3D
>> cited from Chaucer). The link is:
>> =20
>> http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3092.txt
>> =20
>> Here are links to earliest citations I found on Google Books with =3D
>> summary information. All are Google-dated.
>> =20
>> 1. fu lion - 1913 - http://bit.ly/1TmKb3C
>> =20
>> [completely illegible to my eyes]
>> =20
>> 2. foo dog - 1915 - http://bit.ly/1PXMnfv
>> =20
>> The bat=2C the bird=2C the butterfly=2C the dragon=2C the kylin=2C the Fo=
> od dog=2C =3D
>> the leopard=2C =3DE2=3D80=3DA6
>> =20
>> 3. foo lion - 1918 - http://bit.ly/20A8gTG
>> =20
>> Sacred Foo Lion of Cloisonn=3DC3=3DA9=3D20
>> =20
>> Benjamin Barrett
>> Formerly of Seattle=2C WA=3D
>> =20


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