[Ads-l] Pompey meaning Portsmouth, again

[Stephen Goranson]

There are a dozen or so competing etymology proposals, unresolved.

OED has Pompey n. 3 from 1899 and notes "Earliest documented with reference to the football club" compared to the town and dockyard; but that may not be the case now.

Green's Dictionary of Slang, conveniently available gratis online, offers a 1770 use: "Leeds Intelligencer<https://greensdictofslang.com/sources/1162> 19 June 3/3: Imports [...] Southampton, [...] hemp and lathwood. Pompey, [...] tar, turpentine, slaves and rice."
But that seemed suspicious, given its early date and slang appearance in a staid shipping business list. Given that the etymology mentions a later, 1793 possibility from a French-named ship (which I consider unlikely), maybe the 1770 date wasn't believed, though not bracketed, as is an 1841 use of a ship name.
In the 1770 text [newspapers.com] also, in context, Pompey (followed by "J. Smith, from Brunswick in North Carolina") is plainly a ship name. This can be confirmed elsewhere, e.g., General Evening Post (London; Burney collection) June 21-23, Arrivals, Ship News, Hull: "Pompey, Smith, from North Carolina."

So, Green's first reliable citation is of the town, 1898


W.A. Sun. Times<https://greensdictofslang.com/sources/1418> (Perth) 27 Feb. 8/6: I met Jim in the main street of Pompey.

At hathitrust in a seafaring story are three more apparent references to Pompey, as town, also from 1898 {Navy & army illustrated. v.6:no.60-79 (1898) 258, 332, 475:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt/search?q1=pompey;id=umn.319510009705711;view=1up;seq=5;start=1;sz=10;page=search;orient=0

No solution yet. Perhaps the 1898 uses can be antedated.

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
Stephen Goranson's Home Page - Duke University<http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/>
Stephen Goranson. goranson "at" duke "dot" edu. Jannaeus.pdf. My paper on the history of Alexander Jannaeus as the Qumran- and Essene-view "Wicked Priest" and Judah the Essene as the "Teacher of Righteousness" (3 August 2005 [revised 12 January 2006]; 34 pages), "Jannaeus, His Brother Absalom, and Judah the Essene ". Dura-Europos.pdf "7 vs. 8: The Battle Over the Holy Day at Dura-Europos"
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