[Ads-l] Brunswick stew 1846

[Laurence Horn]

Reminds me—I looked up “barbecue” not that long ago because I thought a reference to one in a novel set in colonial America in the mid-18th century (yes, I’m addicted to the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series) might have been an anachronism, but discovered it wasn’t:

OED, _barbecue_ 4a

A large social entertainment, usually in the open air, at which animals are roasted whole, and other provisions liberally supplied. Also attrib. orig. U.S.

1733   B. Lynde Diary 31 Aug. in B. Lynde & B. Lynde Diaries (1880) 138   Fair and hot; Browne, Barbacue; hack overset.
1769   G. Washington Diaries I. 326   Went up to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night.
1773   G. Washington Diaries 124   Went to a Barbicue of my own giving at Accatinck.


I knew the connection to Span. _barbacoa_ (which I’m familiar with from Mexican restaurants) but not that this came into Spanish from Haitian and/or an indigenous language of Guyana.  Or the irresistible French folk etymology (or “absurd conjecture”, as the OED sniffs) included at the entry:  “barbe à queue” = ‘[from] beard to tail'


LH


> On Mar 20, 2018, at 9:59 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Barbecue....The meats were excellent and cooked in the most approved Virginia style; but a capital squirrel stew--
> 
> called by some a Brunswick stew--was the favorite of the table.
> 
> 
> Richmond Times and Compiler [Am. Hist. Newsp.] June 4, 1846 p. 2 col. c.
> 
> 
> 
> [1849 at Lib. Congress Newspapers:
> 
> ...the pride and boast of the feast was a huge and ponderous iron pot in which steamed with delightful fragrance
> 
> a "Brunswick stew"--a genuine south-side [Virginia] dish, composed of squirrels, chickens, a little bacon,
> 
> and corn and tomatoes, ad libitum....under the direction of "uncle Ben Moody"....]
> 
> 
> OED (word of the day; entry rev. Dec. 2016) has 1855.
> 
> 
> Stephen Goranson
> 
> "'On the fritz' at sing Sing"
> 
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=37303#more-37303
> 
> <http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=37303#more-37303>
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org