[Ads-l] Antedating of "Back-Formation"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

It looks like Charles E. Moberly used the term "backward formation"
with a similar denotation in 1881.

Year: 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI)
Title: A Midsummer-Night's Dream
Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Rev. Charles E. Moberly (Charles Edward Moberly)
Publisher: Rivingtons. Waterloo Place, London
Quote Page 60

[Begin excerpt]
145 The collied night. 'The blackened night,' apparently a backward
formation from 'collier.'
[End excerpt]

In addition, the Google Books database has a match with a GB date of
1887 in "A New English Dictionary". However, the date seems to be
incorrect. The 1887 volume covered only Batter to Boz and the entry
with with "back-formation" was "Burgle". Two different volumes of the
dictionary have mistakenly been combined in the GB database. The match
really corresponds to a volume published later, i.e., the match
corresponds to the 1888 citation that is already listed in the OED.

https://books.google.com/books?id=r2pXAAAAYAAJ&q=%22from+Burglar%22#v=snippet&

Garson


On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 11:03 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> In my previous posting I forgot to include the crucial fact that this citation comes from an article by Henry Bradley, the second editor of the OED.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Saturday, June 4, 2016 11:00 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Antedating of "Back-Formation"
>
>
> This antedating may be of interest to historians of the OED.
>
>
>
> back-formation (OED 1888)
>
>
> 1887 _The Academy_ 7 May 327 (ProQuest)  On the whole the most likely supposition seems to be that the existence of the word _celour_ in English suggested the verb _ceelyn_ (to ceil), either as a mere "back-formation" or as an adaptation of Latin _celare_, French _celer_, with senses derived from that of the noun.
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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