[Ads-l] Sockdolager (1813, 1828)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

OED has for "sockdolager" (and its variant spellings) an example from
1830 for "[a] heavy or knock-down blow; a finisher" and an example
from 1838 for "[s]omething exceptional in any respect, esp. a large
fish."

Jonathan Green has an 1824 usage for the word in the first sense,
above, and sticks with that 1838 usage for "sockdolager" in the second
sense.

https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/dgno5qa

I can't do much better, but I thought I'd mention "Evangelicus
Sockdolager," the pseudonymous author of "a sham heroic poem"
published in The Tickler (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 4 August 1813,
p. 4.

https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A10CEBCD7925AF598%40GB3NEWS-10ECB245390559E0%402383460-10ECB245A187B1C8%403-10ECB246A55AD5F0?clipid=gtsbezhujhzxnyvbhdtienztvkfftxes_ip-10-166-46-94_1724180252493

There's also an 1828 usage of "sockdolager" in the Commercial
Advertiser (New York, New York, 29 September, p. 2), but its precise
meaning here is opaque to me and I haven't been able to figure out
whether this is just a post-dating of first sense (1824) or an
antedating of the second sense (1838).

https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1044E924036998A0%40GB3NEWS-1301921D73924158%402388995-12FF4C031B102578%401?clipid=cxjwajoyitcbilumisimnrdifgmpwwxf_ip-10-166-46-170_1724199111437

-- Bonnie

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