[Ads-l] 1858 Citation for "Double Play"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The 1858 citation that Ben is referring to derives from the magnificent 1939 Ph.D. dissertation by Edward J. Nichols, titled "An Historical Dictionary of Baseball Terminology."  Nichols' entry for "double play" cites "1858. Chadwick Scrapbook (clipping)."  "Chadwick" refers to uber-baseball-writer Henry Chadwick.

The Nichols dissertation is such an important source for historical lexicography (although now online databases will generally provide earlier citations than those of Nichols) that I have to believe that the OED has a copy of it and has consulted it routinely for baseball terms.  Probably they saw the citation to Chadwick but decided it was too vague.  However, I suggest that the OED entry for "double play" be revised to include a citation something like the following:

1858 Henry Chadwick scrapbook (New York Public Library) in Edward J. Nichols _Historical Dictionary of Baseball Terminology_ (Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State College) 21 (1939)

Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, August 5, 2022 9:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Double Play" (Correction of Previous Email)

According to Dickson's Baseball Dictionary, there's a use of "double play"
(discovered by Edward J. Nichols) in Chadwick Scrapbooks, 1858. Dickson
doesn't provide the citation, though.

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DceeU7xSLw5kC%26pg%3DPA268&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Ce41d4e9929a54583b45d08da774c3c6b%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637953466567085906%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rFs4udWt0mRfrcOLnq0GsqQhEvBeRqUjClCJ1845Gvo%3D&reserved=0

On Fri, Aug 5, 2022 at 9:01 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> double play (OED 1867)
>
> 1862 _Times Union_ (Brooklyn, N.Y.) 5 Aug. 2/5 (Newspapers.com)  Campbell
> ... made a double play.
>
>

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