[Ads-l] gobsmacked antedatings?

[Stephen Goranson]

Attested in dictionaries from the 1950s, gobsmacked maybe appears earlier in non-confirmed but

perhaps plausible-looking OCR snippets at British Newspaper Archive, in case anyone (subscribing) is interested in confirming.

I don't need the images, and merely wandered there during an *unlikely* attempt to see if codswallop were somehow related.

Unconfirmed passages from northern England papers:


And they didn't feel a bit *gobsmack* , d‘ when the discovery was made that thn rest of the tram had gone without them?
Published: Wednesday 25 March 1925
Newspaper: Skegness Standard<https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?newspaperTitle=Skegness%20Standard>
County: Lincolnshire, England

Great Scot, Jim. felt gobsmacked.) might try it tor one night all right, but lor nights on end—why, roan, it's impossible. ain't miracle
ublished: Saturday 31 July 1926
Newspaper: Yorkshire Evening Post<https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?newspaperTitle=Yorkshire%20Evening%20Post>
County: West Yorkshire, England

Woman, and ' she cry; cry; cry' breathed in the Steward s accents. I'm bet. Gobsmacked.
Published: Friday 01 May 1936
Newspaper: Hull Daily Mail<https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?newspaperTitle=Hull%20Daily%20Mail>
County: East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Basil on the heead. says, gawstaring like an owd cockerel crawin’ an' winking at Betsy agccao. Well, mester. Ah were (air gobsmacked at them letters an’ tonned 'em oarer ageran an’ agccan. Its a fair likker to me. says.
Published: Wednesday 10 November 1937
Newspaper: Skegness Standard<https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?newspaperTitle=Skegness%20Standard>
County: Lincolnshire, England

Stephen Goranson
o   r   i   g   i   n       k   i   b   o   s   h
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/





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