[Ads-l] Slight antedating of "banana republic" (May, 1901)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Have we done "banana republic" recently?

The OED's first example for "banana republic" dates to 1935.
Merriam-Webster and the Wikipedia page for "banana republic" give 1904 as
its first usage.  The latter credits William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) for
this coinage, which appeared in his book _Cabbages and Kings_ (published in
1904).

The chapters/stories within _Cabbages and Kings_ were published elsewhere
before they appeared as a whole in 1904, however.


1) The first appearance of "banana republic" that I've managed to find is
in O. Henry's "Money Maze," published in *Ainslee's Magazine* in May, 1901.

"At that time we had a treaty with about every foreign country except
Belgium and that banana republic, Anchuria." (p. 305)


2) The term also appeared in his "Rouge Et Noir: A Little Business Romance
of the Banana Trade," published in *Ainslee's* in December, 1901.

"The banana republic of Costaragua has, practically, two capitals." (p. 452)


3) By that month, however, the term was also used in the popular press.

"It is not unusual for the citizens of one of these 'banana republics,' as
they are sometimes called, to change their rulers a half-dozen times in as
many years, though the state constitution almost invariably prescribes a
tenure of four years for each President elected to office."

>From S.M.B., "What the insurgents in Colombia are fighting for," *The Inter
Ocean* (Chicago), Magazine Section, p. 2, 1 December 1901.


I have no reason to believe that Porter/O. Henry didn't coin "banana
republic." Perhaps the *Inter Ocean* writer (with his "banana republics, as
they are sometimes called") had simply picked up the term from O. Henry's
just-published short stories.

-- Bonnie

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