[Ads-l] Antedating of "Hillbully" by Barry Popik

[Shapiro, Fred]

I am not sure to what extent Barry Popik's great discoveries about word-histories get picked up for the historical record.  Here is one particularly notable one from barrypopik.com that should receive attention.  It is an antedating by Barry of the OED's first use (1900) of the term "hillbilly":

18 October 1881, The Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH), pg. 2, col. 1:
Nicholasville, Kentucky.
THE TOWN TAKEN BY ROUGHS.
NICHOLASVILLE, October 17.—This has been Court-day, and a quiet one, until about dark, when ten or fifteen roughs, known locally as “Hill Billies,” undertook to take the city.

Fred Shapiro




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