[Ads-l] Cousin Sally, new in OED

[Stephen Goranson]

Yes, of course LH and JL. As I wrote, OED added this entry and explanation "reasonably enough."
What I suggested as a possible though uncertain (and maybe not worth mentioning) supplement concerned the choice of (the already well known name) Cousin Sally, rather than, say, Cousin Sue, which might parallel Uncle Sam more closely.

Btw, the "...chicken with its head cut off" item can be antedated multiple times.

SG

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2020 4:13 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Cousin Sally, new in OED

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
> >
> >
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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