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

Thu Jul 13 13:03:56 UTC 2023

Earlier in U.K.:

1842 _Taunton [Somerset] Courier, and Western Advertiser_ (June 1) : From
the Athenaeum...It is n't a case of "tit-tat-toe,"/ And "three jolly
butchers all in a row."

JL

On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 7:36 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> Nice work, guys.
>
> The variant with /k/ must be considerably older than its appearance in
> print.
>
> This critique of a painting seems to be a way of saying "three in a row." :
>
> 1845 _N. Y. Herald_ (May 3)  2: _Group of Children, by G. Linden -- Very
> badly arranged -- tit, tat, toe.
>
> And consider:
>
> 1851 _The Lutheran Observer_ (Baltimore, Md.) (Nov. 14) 596:
> Tit-tat-toe--/ My first go:/ Three jolly butcher boys all in a row!/ Stick
> one up-- /Stick one down--/ Stick one in the old man's burying ground!
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Jul 12, 2023 at 8:56 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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&
>> <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."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>

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

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