[Ads-l] "bulldoze(r)" (June 1876)

Fri Feb 16 01:48:42 UTC 2018

In fact, the compound in question appears to have been "bull's pizzle."

OED: 1599-1737

1812, in Google Books: Birch then laid on him with the bull's pizzle, and
had him down in a corner, and he screamed out murder, and then Birch gave
over licking him.

The word didn't make it into HDAS 1 because I had no U.S. exx. Evidently it
hung on well into the 19th  C.

JL

On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 7:27 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> It's not clear from the article, but I assume that it is "Bull's whip" (as
> in bullwhip<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullwhip>), abbreviated to
> "Bull".
>
>
> A transcript of testimony describing the electoral violence includes a
> victim saying that the perpetrator threatened to give another "dose,"
> corroborating, I guess, the suggestion in the purported etymology that
> giving a beating would be called giving a dose.
>
>
> Message from the President of the United States transmitting a letter,
> accompanied by testimony, addressed to him by Hon. John Sherman and others,
> in relation to the canvass of the vote for electors in the State of
> Louisiana, December 6, 1876.
>
>
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433113857886;view=1up;seq=497
>
>
> Page 479:
>
>
> "After the assault the squad made public declaration of their achievement
> and threatened to repeat the dose if he came about the town."
>
> [END]
>
> The testimony also includes numerous references to people being whipped by
> people called "regulators" or "bull-dozers," corroborating, perhaps, the
> notion that the "bull" was, in fact, a whip as suggested by the proposed
> etymology.
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2018 3:52 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "bulldoze(r)" (June 1876)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "bulldoze(r)" (June 1876)
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> > a compound word, the first of which is 'Bull's.'
>
> And the second?
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 3:59 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > > On Feb 15, 2018, at 3:08 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > John Kelly has a post on the Oxford Dictionaries blog about the racist
> > > roots of "bulldozer" -- it goes back to violent voter intimidation
> > tactics
> > > in the 1876 elections.
> >
> > Ah, not *that* John Kelly.  Whew.
> >
> > LH
> > >
> > > ----
> > > https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2018/02/14/word-racist-roots-
> > bulldozer/
> > > To suppress their vote or coerce them away from casting their ballots
> f=
> or
> > > Republicans, Democratic supporters would intimidate black voters with
> > > threats or acts of violence. This practice especially plagued the 1876
> > > presidential election, and in Louisiana came to be called bull-dozing.
> > > ----
> > >
> > > Linking to:
> > > https://jubiloemancipationcentury.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/
> Posts from March 17, 2011 on Jubilo! The Emancipation Century<https://
> jubiloemancipationcentury.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/>
> jubiloemancipationcentury.wordpress.com
> 1 post published by lunchcountersitin on March 17, 2011
>
>
> > bulldozing-reconstruction-and-southern-voters/
> > >
> > > The post mentions that the earliest known examples of the word, from
> > > Louisiana sources, date from the summer of 1876, but I don't see the
> > early
> > > cites given anywhere. HDAS and GDoS have cites from later in 1876, and
> > the
> > > OED2 entry for "bulldoze" just cites an unnamed and undated "American
> > > newspaper" from that year. ("If a negro is invited to join it [a
> societ=
> y
> > > called =E2=80=98The Stop=E2=80=99], and refuses, he is taken to the
> woo=
> ds and whipped.
> > This
> > > whipping is called a =E2=80=98bull-doze=E2=80=99, or doze fit for a
> bul=
> l.")
> > >
> > > Here are the earliest examples I've found for the various forms.
> > >
> > > * bulldozle, bulldozer
> > >
> > > New Orleans Republican, June 20, 1876, p. 1, col. 1
> > > Monday or Tuesday night W.Y. Payne, a colored man, of East Baton Rouge,
> > was
> > > taken from his home, at Holt's place, at night, from his bed, and was
> > > afterward found hung to a tree, two miles above that place, on the
> plan=
> k
> > > road near White's bayou. He had committed no offense; all had been
> quie=
> t,
> > > but he was the secretary of the Third Ward Republican Club of that
> > parish.
> > > He was therefore "bulldozled," which is of late the local name of the
> > > actions of the "Regulators." Besides this many other negroes have
> withi=
> n
> > a
> > > few days been taken from their homes and brutally whipped and beaten, a
> > > milder means of correction sometimes adopted by the bulldozers.
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17471753/bulldozled/
> bulldozled - Newspapers.com<https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17471753/
> bulldozled/>
> www.newspapers.com
> Clipping found in New Orleans Republican in New Orleans, Louisiana on 20
> Jun 1876, Tue. bulldozled Monday or Tuesday night W. T. Payne, a colored
> man. of Esst Baton Ronge, was taken from his home, at Holt's plaoe, at
> night, from his bed, and was afterward toond hang to a tree, two miles
> above that
>
>
> > >
> > > * bulldoze
> > >
> > > New Orleans Republican, June 24, 1876, p. 1, col. 4
> > > Lorenzo Jackson, of J.A. Campbell's plantation, was bulldozed, terribly
> > > whipped, the excuse being he had stolen a gun in 1872.
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17471800/bulldozed/
> bulldozed - Newspapers.com<https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17471800/
> bulldozed/>
> www.newspapers.com
> Clipping found in New Orleans Republican in New Orleans, Louisiana on 24
> Jun 1876, Sat. bulldozed A man—and perhaps his name had better not be
> mentioned just yet—living close by Mount Pleasant, was concealed on an
> island at Fontania landing. He saw Levin Foster, Foster, a Baptist
> minister, Hen
>
>
> > >
> > > * bulldozing (ppl. adj.)
> > >
> > > New Orleans Republican, June 28, 1876, p. 1, col. 5
> > > So complete is the reign of terror created by the bulldozing Regulators
> > of
> > > East Feliciana and East Baton Rouge, that a half of the inhuman
> > brutalities
> > > practiced on innocent colored men will never be told.
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17472010/bulldozing/
> bulldozing - Newspapers.com<https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17472010/
> bulldozing/>
> www.newspapers.com
> Clipping found in New Orleans Republican in New Orleans, Louisiana on 28
> Jun 1876, Wed. bulldozing Hanging a Colored Preacher ia a Church. So
> complete is the reign of terror created by the bulldczing Regulators of
> East Feliciana Feliciana and East Baton Rouge, that a half of the inhuman
> brutalities
>
>
> > >
> > > --bgz
> > >
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