[Ads-l] off the reservation (1892)

[Jonathan Lighter]

On CNN  Jake Tapper apologized to a guest for quoting the phrase, saying
that many Native Americans found it "highly offensive."

The African-American guest (a Sanders "surrogate") said,  "Terrible.
Terrible."

Once again Sen. Clinton inadvertently played into Mr. Trump's hands (like
the time she barked on stage like a dog). "Off the reservation" is/was not
infrequently applied to adulterous husbands.

JL

On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 1:07 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> OED3 has the figurative sense of "off the reservation" from 1898, in
> an article by Frederic Remington describing his time embedded with the
> Fifth Army Corps in Cuba.
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=PeIvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA962
>
> Barry Popik found a political example from 1899:
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/off_the_reservation
>
> Here's a political example antedating both of those, from 1892.
>
> ---
> Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), Aug. 17, 1892, p. 4, col. 4
> Hustling Matters. Chairman Carter in Washington Looking for Cash.
> Chairman Tom Carter of the Republican national committee made a flying
> trip to Washington today...
> Chairman Carter in private conversation with some of his party friends
> expressed a great deal of concern at the persistent refusal of Tom
> Platt and the other "New York Hostiles" to come in off the
> reservation, but for publication he was delivered of a couple of rose
> tinted interviews in which he claimed New York by from 20,000 to
> 30,000.
> ---
>
> More in my latest column for the Wall St. Journal:
>
>
> http://www.wsj.com/articles/off-the-reservation-is-a-phrase-with-a-dark-past-1462552837
>
> In the column I also cite an early literal use:
>
> ---
> Daily Placer Times and Transcript (San Francisco), June 30, 1855, p. 2,
> col. 4
> The State Journal Says: General Denver, who arrived the day before
> yesterday from the North, has kindly furnished us with the following
> interesting items...
> Gen. Denver was informed by a Mr. Mathews, of Crescent City, that
> every Indian between Crescent City and Yreka had gone to the
> reservation. Mr. Whipple had told the people to shoot all the Indians
> found off the reservation, and notified the Indians of what he had
> done. This had the desired effect.
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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