[Ads-l] Seditty (antedating to 1936)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Some time ago we pushed "seditty" back to 1948.

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-June/082442.html

Although OED has the 1948 occurrence as its earliest, Merriam-Webster
mentions its first known use in 1936, though it doesn't share that
example.

I don't know whether what follows is what M-W has, but I think it
reinforces a possible origin in "sedate," in the sense of "dignified,"
and mirrors Grace Coyle's 1948 observation that "seditty" was then "a
colloquialism referring to the respectable and controlled behavior
associated with middle-class standards."

-- Bonnie

They were having their telephone installed Wednesday and the main
office is looking real "seditty." [In "We Saw This Week," The Ouachita
Citizen (West Monroe, Louisiana), 7 February 1936, p. 5;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ouachita-citizen-seditty-271936/163536076/.]

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