[Ads-l] "old boy" = the devil + OED antedating of "Old Roger".

[Robin Hamilton]

Could it be a mis-hearing on the part of the person writing the words down
originally?  Or am I grasping after straws?

RH.

> 
>     On 20 September 2016 at 19:24 Hugo <hugovk at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> 
>     > The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that the term used
>     > was actually "cratter", and the sense was "old creature".
> 
>     > JB: I've looked only at the two 1890's transcriptions, and the
>     > manuscript Hugo provided to the list. But in the manuscript I did not
>     > look further than the portion that used "old man", and I don't know
>     > whether Hugo's scrap shows "cratten".
> 
>     http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ecca/medium/ecca1157r.jpg
> 
>    http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/swp?term=cratten&div_id=n69.5&chapter_id=n69
> 
>     It's the fourth line from the end, fourth word along (above "mother").
>     Looks like an "n" in the manuscript, and distinct from other "r"
>     letters. If not "cratten", it could be "craften" or "craffen", but I
>     don't think those are any more helpful.
> 
>     Hugo
> 
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> 

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