[Ads-l] antedating trans. "disappear,"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Intriguing topic, JL. The OED has disappear verb "4.a. transitive. To
cause to vanish" with an 1897 citation. The OED also has:

[Begin excerpt]
disappear VERB
4.b. transitive. spec. To abduct or arrest (a person), esp. for
political reasons, typically killing or imprisoning the individual,
without making his or her fate known.
[End excerpt]

Here is a candidate for an early instance of a supernatural abduction,
I think. Yet, the editors may place it under sense 4.a. instead of
4.b.

Date: November 1906
Periodical: The American Magazine
Volume 63, Number 1
Publisher: The Phillips Publishing Company, New York
Story Title: The Mystery
Authors: Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams
Part III The Maroon, Chapter I , Quote Page 98

https://books.google.com/books?id=ncHQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Edwards+was%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
"We certainly saw the glow the night Billy Edwards was--disappeared."
mused Forsythe.
"And again, night before last," said the captain.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 5:11 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> OED:1965
>
> [1922 _McGill [U.] Daily_ (March 3) 3: He saw two big DETECATIVES [sic]  a
> standin' by his side. /They disappeared him so quick he hadn't time to
> shout.]
>
> 1961 Joseph Heller _Catch-22_ (N.Y.: Simon & Schuster) 359: She had urgent
> news about Dunbar. "They're going to disappear him." Yossarian...laughed
> uneasily...."It doesn't make sense. It isn't even good grammar. What the
> hell does it mean when they disappear somebody?" _Ibid._ 392: "Major
> Major's gone." "Did they disappear him?" "I don't know." "What will you do
> if they try to disappear you?"
>
> JL
> --
> "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

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org