[Ads-l] Cousin Sally, new in OED

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Jan 26 21:13:15 UTC 2020


Also "Cousin Sally Ann." See HDAS.

JL

On Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 11:22 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Maybe it goes without saying but, as the OED notes, the primary
> motivation, whichever real or fictitious Sally may have been involves, was
> the alliteration of Cousin Sally = “C[onfederate] S[tates]” as a nod to
> that in Uncle Sam for “U[nited] S[tates].”
>
> > On Jan 26, 2020, at 8:25 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
> >
> > The following is highly speculative, iffy.
> >
> > OED now has an entry for Cousin Sally referring to Confederate States
> from 1861, reasonably enough.
> > Speculation: this name choice might could have been influenced by the
> often-reprinted antebellum southern folk tale, Cousin Sally Dillard.
> Richard Walzer, "Ham Jones: Southern Folk Humorist,"The Journal of American
> Folklore
> > Vol. 78, No. 310 (Oct. - Dec., 1965), pp. 295-316 [via JSTOR], reprints
> and discusses it.
> >
> > The Daily Journal, Wilmington, NC, March 21, 1860, 2/2 on slavery and
> abolition:
> > "That is what the Register said only one month before the meeting of the
> Opposition Convention, before the editor was brought to the confessional by
> cousin "Sally Dillard" and received the judgement of the court from Judge
> Badger."
> >
> > Admittedly, a weak association, though why a fictional character
> mentioned? Maybe a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
> >
> > SG
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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