[Ads-l] antedating "commie"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fred Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> Doesn't the OED have a 1928 citation for the noun ?

Excellent point, Fred. The OED does list a 1928 citation.

[Begin excerpt from OED]
commie, n.
colloquial (originally U.S. derogatory).
 A. n.   = communist n. 2.
1928 Scout 12 May 826/3   Now the game has come to an end. The
‘Commies’ have stopped doing their share of it and don't seem inclined
to play any more.
[End excerpt]

I couldn’t find the issue of “The Scout” containing this text in
Google Books, but I did find a match in a newspaper article which was
based on the story in “The Scout”.

The OED specified a U.S. origin for “commie”, but the first citation
is from the quintessential Englishman Sir Robert Baden-Powell.

Date: May 18, 1928
Newspaper: The Wells Journal
Newspaper Location: Wells, Somerset, England
Article: Wells and District Boy Scouts' Association - "Coddling the 'Commies'"
Quote Page 3, Column 2
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109726400/scoutcommies/

[Begin excerpt]
“CODDLING THE ‘COMMIES’ ”

Writing in the current number of “The Scout”—the official paper of the
Boy Scouts— Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout, says: “I have
only just heard of this new game for Scouts.

The Communists have hung about outside Scouts Troop Headquarters
handing out handbills to the Scouts as they arrived for parade.

The game has been this. So soon as a Scout got his hand bill he went
inside the clubroom, changed his appearance, went out by a back way
and came round again to the front and got another hand hill, as if he
was a fresh arrival. Whoever collected the biggest number of handbills
in this way was declared the winner.

Now the game has come to an end. The “Commies” have stopped doing
their share of it and don't seem inclined to play any more. What a
pity! The Scouts enjoyed it so!”
[End excerpt]

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