[Ads-l] NYC English a prefixing.

[Ben Zimmer]

OED covers "an eeling" in the entry for "a" prep1, II.11.b. ("After a verb
denoting or implying motion and before a verbal noun: to, into (some
action))."

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1780 _Narragansett Historical Register_ (1882) October 104
Went an eeling.
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The OED notes that the "an" form appeared in the 18th century "before a
vowel or h-." Here's an example of "an" before "h-":

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1759 J. Newton, Diary 23 February in _Deserted Village_ (1992) 12
Went an House hunting.
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--bgz


On Sat, Aug 19, 2023 at 5:12 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The phrase "go an angling" appeared within an edition of "The Compleat
> Angler".
>
> Year: 1759 (Date specified by the editor's preface: August 30, 1759)
> Book Title: The Compleat Angler: Or Contemplative Man's Recreation, In Two
> Parts
> Authors: Isaac Walton and Charles Cotton
> Seventh Edition
> Printed and Sold by Henry Kent, London
> Chapter 21: Directions for making a Line, and for the colouring of
> both Rod and Line
> Quote Page 216
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=hJpcAAAAcAAJ&q=%22an+angling%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> And upon all that are Lovers of Virtue, and dare trust in his
> Providence, and be quiet, and go an angling.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Below is a pertinent citation for a non-food-gathering activity. The
> phrase "went a swimming" occurred in a 1725 book.
>
> Year: 1725
> Title: An Essay on Sickness and Health
> Author: Edward Strother M.D.
> Printed by H.P. for Charles Rivington, London
> Chapter 3: Of Motion and Rest
> Quote Page 330
> Database: Google Books Full View
>
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=tHZhgXQsZLoC&q=%22a+swimming%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> . . . when I had staid there for half a Year, I betook myself to
> Leyden for my Studies, and went a swimming with my School-fellows in
> the Sea, and was cur'd insensibly by the Sea-salt rushing into the
> Pores of my Body . . .
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Sat, Aug 19, 2023 at 4:12 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Not sure how we can infer that there’s a “semantic limitation to food
> gathering activities”, even if we limit the parameters to late 18th century
> usage in the Northeast. In our YGDP entry on a-prefixing, , we cite the
> following example from the laws of Yale College, imposed in 1795, crediting
> Corky Feagin (1979: 116) with the find:
> >
> > "If any Scholar shall go a-fishing or sailing, or more than two miles
> from the College, upon any occasion, without leave from the President, a
> Professor, or a Tutor, ... he may be fined not exceeding thirty-four cents.”
> >
> > Granted, fishing counts as (attempted) food gathering but sailing
> doesn’t. (I’m pretty sure the law in no longer in effect, or at least it
> hasn’t been indexed for inflation.)
> >
> > LH
> >
> > > On Aug 19, 2023, at 1:43 PM, Michael Newman <
> Michael.Newman at QC.CUNY.EDU> wrote:
> > >
> > > Another interesting case from our history explorations, this time from
> a Brooklyn diary written by John Baxter (b. 1765). Baxter may or may not be
> a descendant of New Amsterdam's official English translator (later turned
> pirate) George Baxter. John Baxter pretty regularly uses a-prefixing but
> only with verbs related to food gathering:
> > >
> > >
> > >  *   Went a fishing  (1792)
> > >  *   Went a gunning (1800)
> > >
> > > But here's a weird one, I want to ask about:
> > >
> > > I went an eeling (1796)
> > >
> > > Are there other cases of N insertion before a-prefixes? Has the
> semantic limitation to food gathering activities been noticed before. BTW,
> there are other cases of a-prefixing from other diaries and in Horatio
> Alger's depiction of street kids' speech. The diary is in the archives of
> the Brooklyn Historical Society.
> > >
> > >
>

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