[Ads-l] filibuster (1846 etc.)

[dave at WILTON.NET]

My recently updated entry on "filibuster," nothing new and no new antedatings, but it does lay out the history, including it's earlier use to refer to inflammatory speech:

https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/filibuster


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of Ben Zimmer
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2020 5:47 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] filibuster (1846 etc.)

On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 5:28 PM James Landau < 00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> On  Sat, 26 Sep 2020 12:57:21 Zone-0400  Ben Zimmer 
> <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote
>
> <quote>
> OED2's entry for "filibuster" has early versions of the word related 
> to Dutch "vrijbuiter" and the French form "flibustier." The entry 
> suggests that the spelling "filibuster," based on Spanish 
> "filibustero," first came into English usage to denote (as per sense 
> 2b) "a member of any of those bands of adventurers who between 1850 
> and 1860 organized expeditions from the United States, in violation of 
> international law, for the purpose of revolutionizing certain states 
> in Central America and the Spanish West Indies."
> <end quote>
> Filibusters, although they may not have acquired that name yet, 
> antedate 1850, e.g. William Walker who invaded and gained control of 
> Nicaragua in1846.
> Interesting usage: "revolutionizing".  A better word would be "conquering"
> as the usual motive for filibusters was to permanently retain the 
> Central American/West Indies territories and bring them into the 
> United States as new slave states.
>

I believe William Walker's invasion of Nicaragua was in 1855-56, not 1846.

--bgz

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