[Ads-l] Antedating of "Tick-Tack-Toe"

[Peter Reitan]

1850, a memoir about a trip to California, the author says she taught "tit tat toe and some of her old school games" to a child on the ship.

HathiTrust
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433076065634&view=1up&seq=30&q1=%22Tit%20tat%22
________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 5:21:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Tick-Tack-Toe"

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Tick-Tack-Toe"
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The JL in 1879 is a typo.

On Wed, Jul 12, 2023 at 8:19=E2=80=AFPM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmai=
l.com>
wrote:

> I've got some more, though it isn't quite clear which game is alluded to:
>
> 1879_ Chicago Tribune_ (Sept. 4) 5: Is one Nicholas Bramgan, recently
> liberated from the Penitentiary at Joliet, in the employ of the city as
> policeman or give-away, or is he simply playing a little game of "tick,
> tack, toe," like Martin Flanagan?JL
>
> 1885 _St. Albans [Vt.] Daily Messenger_ (Feb. 28) 3: Even the teacher
> will... take a slate and sit down wit [sic] a girl and play what is calle=
d
> tick-tack-toe.
>
> It may be that "tic-tac-toe" began as a counting rhyme like
> eeny-meeny-miny-mo:
>
> 1885 _Washington Standard_ (Olympia, Wash.) (Nov. 6) 1: Tic, tac, toe; le=
t
> the Chinese lepers go./...Get out of this, get out of that./ Tic-tac-toe.
>
> There's this:
>
> 1862 _Weekly Times (Burlington, Vt.) (Nov. 8) 7: NEW MUSIC.
> Songs....Kingdom Coming (Negro melody)....Tick-Tack-Toe, - A song for the
> times.
>
> And:
>
> 1874 _Manchester Guardian_  (March 6) 6: The children in [the painting]
> "Tick! Tack! Toe!"...are just as bad.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Jul 12, 2023 at 7:39=E2=80=AFPM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting topic, JL. Excellent lead, Fred.
>> The phrase "Tic-tac-toe, three in a row" occurs below in 1878 (I
>> think), but it is not clear whether it refers to the game of today.
>>
>> Part of the text is cut off in the scan.
>>
>> Date: 1878 October
>> Periodical: New Dominion Monthly
>> Published by John Dougall & Son, Montreal
>> Section: Young Folks
>> Article: A Life in the Stage: A Story for Boys
>> Start Page 462, Quote Page 466, Column 2
>>
>>
>> https://books.google.com/books?id=3DV685RfuwRmQC&q=3D%22Tic%2C+tac%22#v=
=3Dsnippet&
>>
>> [Begin excerpt - please double check text and date]
>> But can this comfortable, ea...
>> going man, who walks up to the v...
>> andah and seating himself on the
>> vacant chair says with a quiet laugh
>> "Tic-tac-toe, three in a row--...
>> this be our little thin, pale-faced S...
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> The cut-off words might be "easy" and veranda".
>>
>> Garson
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 12, 2023 at 7:03=E2=80=AFPM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale=
.edu>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Correction: In the 1908 citation it is "tack" rather than "tock."
>> >
>> > Fred Shapiro
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ________________________________
>> > From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
>> > Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 7:01 PM
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Subject: Antedating of "Tick-Tack-Toe"
>> >
>> > tick-tack-toe (OED, b., 1960)
>> >
>> > 1895 _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ 10 Dec. 7/1 (Newspapers.com)  It was
>> "tick, tack, toe, three in a row."
>> >
>> > 1908 _Cincinnati Enquirer_ 9 July 2/6 (Newspapers.com)  Up to the stag=
e
>> they went, tick, tock, toe, three in a row. like the figures we used to
>> make on our slate when the teacher wasn't looking.
>> >
>> > Fred Shapiro
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth=
."
>


--=20
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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