[Ads-l] "Brouhaha" (in English usage; antedating to 1819)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Garson asks a great question below, one that I had also wondered about in
compiling some of this on "brouhaha." (Thanks for this message, Garson.)

He has shared something (below) I had seen as well, a translation (into
English) of the original _L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane_.

As he rightly mentions, "brouhaha" within this English translation remains
as "brouhaha" (no quotation marks, but italicized) and is footnoted with
the explanation "Brouhaha!  a note of applause." (In collecting data
earlier, I had restricted myself to English-language texts written in the
original English that also happened to include French phrases/words as part
of the [English] text. All appearances of "brouhaha" in my original message
were in italics.)

Would someone be able to help us with this issue? If a foreign word appears
in an English translation of a text, without the word in question's
translation into English (and without the word's seeming prior acceptance
into English), how do lexicographers treat this? (I think Garson explains
this better than I have.)

And a belated thank-you to Pete Morris for locating a usage of "brouhaha"
in an English text published in 1810:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-April/159591.html.

-- Bonnie

On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 3:10 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

Bonnie clearly stated that she 'omitted texts that are clearly (or
> likely) just translations from French into English, with "brouhaha" as
> an untranslatable word'. The instance below seems to fit into the
> group Bonnie has omitted from her excellent collection of citations.
>
> Yet, here is a question for dictionary makers. Does the citation below
> qualify as an instance of "brouhaha" in English or French?
>
> Date: 1797
> Title: The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane: A New Translation, by
> the Author of Roderick Random
> Volume 4 of 4
> Chapter V
> Quote Page 36
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=oaQtAAAAMAAJ&q=brouhaha#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> In this part of our conversation, the actors appeared; and we left off
> speaking immediately, in order to listen with attention. The applauses
> began with the prologue; every verse was attended with a brouhaha*!
> and at the end of each act, there was such a clapping of hands, that
> one would have thought the house was falling.
>
> * Brouhaha!  a note of applause.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>

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