[Ads-l] "old boy" = the devil + OED antedating of "Old Roger".
Joel Berson
berson at ATT.NET
Wed Sep 21 03:09:46 UTC 2016
Only if "craften" or "craffen" or "cratter" lead nowhere also.
Joel
From: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 3:24 PM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "old boy" = the devil + OED antedating of "Old Roger".
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÷_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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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