[Ads-l] Antedating of "Cartoonist"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fred Shapiro wrote:
> cartoonist (OED 1880)
>
> 1868 _Fun_ (London) 17 Oct. 56 (19th Century U.K. Periodicals)  Or perhaps he is ambitious to become the "cartoonist" of the _Police News_.

Below is an instance of "cartoonist" (together with "cartoon") in a
London newspaper in 1843.

Date: August 5, 1843
Newspaper: The Atlas
Newspaper Location: London, England
Article: Fine Arts: The Cartoons and English Artists (Second Notice)
Quote Page 11 (503), Column 2
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin excerpt]
The cartoons which our modern painters have produced show sufficient
technical skill, but the authors have not soared high enough . . .

Our cartoonists have had enough sense to avoid anachronisms of
architecture, dress, or other accessories, but not in the living
figures. Their saints, heroes, women or children, are modern English
aristocratic conventional faces and figures, whether the scene be laid
in Greece, Rome, Palestine, Ancient Britain, or the regions of
romance.
[End excerpt]

The most common definition of "cartoon" has shifted over time, and the
OED definition of "cartoonist" is based on "cartoon". It appears that
the above instance of "cartoonist" is based on sense number one of
"cartoon".

[Begin OED information]
cartoon, n.
 1. A drawing on stout paper, made as a design for a painting of the
same size to be executed in fresco or oil, or for a work in tapestry,
mosaic, stained glass, or the like.
[End OED information]

[Begin OED information]
cartoonist, n.
  An artist who draws cartoons.
1880   Daily News 28 Dec. 3/1.
1883   Glasgow Her. 12 July   The cartoonist of the comic papers.
[End OED information]

Garson

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