[Ads-l] Possible Antedating of "Bible Belt"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Thanks to Ben for catching the omission of "American Mercury."

I'm not sure whether "October" or "13 October" should be regarded as earlier.  That's why I said "Possible Antedating."

Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Monday, July 8, 2024 12:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Possible Antedating of "Bible Belt"

On Mon, Jul 8, 2024 at 10:27 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> Bible Belt (OED Oct 13, 1924)
>
> 1924 [Presumably H. L. Mencken in] Oct. 171/1 (Internet Archive)
>
> IOWA  Progress of the New Jurisprudence in the Bible Belt.
>

The source is missing here -- it's from The American Mercury. Always
helpful to provide a link, too:

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fsim_american-mercury_1924-10_3_10%2Fpage%2F171%2Fmode%2F1up&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C323717b83f3a4317b4ab08dc9f685906%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638560517740705296%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Qp3E1GKNXh2c2orcc9g4RAp8eRREVpACLpXjhDZTzPc%3D&reserved=0<https://archive.org/details/sim_american-mercury_1924-10_3_10/page/171/mode/1up>

Here's the Oct. 13, 1924 Mencken column in the Baltimore Evening Sun cited
by the OED -- hard to say which appeared earlier:

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-evening-sun-mencken-bible-belt%2F150913772%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C323717b83f3a4317b4ab08dc9f685906%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638560517740719859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=e5vB5kJwt2I3q3GEeDO3Qz5wSs6VE20%2BqQ%2Fgw47WVss%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-sun-mencken-bible-belt/150913772/>

--bgz

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