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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Heller's characters were being "disappeared" by army authorities. Hence (I
believe) the currency of the term.

JL

On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 6:52 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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