[Ads-l] YouTubery: "I guess you never heard of a _wheelbarrel_."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

>Garson O'Toole wrote:
> > The following 1898 citation employed "wheelbarrow" and "wheelbarrel"
> > in adjacent sentences. Yet, the two terms apparently referred to the
> > same object.
> >
> > Date: October 16, 1898
> > Newspaper: The Cincinnati Enquirer
> > Newspaper Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
> > Article: Street Talk
> > Quote Page 13, Column 1
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > "If yer had a wheelbarrel we'd be all right," asserted the young man
> > who had delivered the guitar.
> >
> > "Well, there's a wheelbarrow somewhere on the place. It's back by the
> > stable."
> > [End excerpt]

Mark Mandel wrote:
>  I suspect that was intended to reflect different usages by the
> conversants. Note the eye dialect "yer" of the "wheelbarrel" speaker, while
> speaker "wheelbarrow" is recorded in standard spelling. That's not much
> evidence in such brief utterances, but it's something. The source cited
> must have more.

Below is a link to a clipping together with a longer excerpt. The task
was to travel to a village and bring back liquid refreshments for a
group of people. The tool was a wheelbarrel or wheelbarrow.

I would guess that a barrel with wheels would work for this task. So
the ambiguity of "wheelbarrel" remains unresolved (to me). In the
article, a wheelbarrow was successfully employed.

Date: October 16, 1898
Newspaper: The Cincinnati Enquirer
Newspaper Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Article: Street Talk
Quote Page 13, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30820921/wheelbarrel/

[Begin excerpt]
"Gentlemen, I am sorry, but I have nothing in the house to drink. The
stable is locked and the coachman has gone away with the key or I
would send down to the village for a keg of beer for you," said the
now somewhat restless Judge.

"If yer had a wheelbarrel we'd be all right," asserted the young man
who had delivered the guitar.

"Well, there's a wheelbarrow somewhere on the place. It's back by the stable."

Three of them started for the village with the wheelbarrow, and in
remarkably short space of time came trundling back heavily laden.

"We couldn't get a keg any place in 'Ditchtown,' Judge, and we had to
get a half barrel," they explained, "an' while we was comin' we
brought a box of cigars."
 [End excerpt]

Garson

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