[Ads-l] "sea-pouse": a word for DARE?

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Tue May 31 01:50:23 UTC 2016


            *Extract of a letter from East-Hampton, (Long-Island) June 29,
1788*.

            It is well known to many that where a sandy shore is washed by
the ocean, the bottom is subject to continual variation, which produce, or
are produced, by a kind of eddy to the waves, by which any buoyant
substance will be carried, sometimes with great rapidity, against the
swell, back to the sea.

            The South side of Long-Island, especially at the East end, is
remarkable for these reverting currents, which the natives call *sea-pouse*,
and cautiously avoid.
            Daily Advertiser (New York, N. Y.), July 10, 1787, p. 2, col. 1

I don't have the later vols. of DARE; it's not in the OED.

GAT

-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list