[Ads-l] Thou boot-lick! (etc.; noun & verb antedatings to OED)

[Stephen Goranson]

Previously I posted an 1830 newspaper railing against bootleg rum as stuff
poured directly into a bootleg and not fit for human consumption. (An 1850
date I gave elsewhere in that post is mistaken.)

The story so far: though boots were so called that in England since way
back, only in America do we find (so far) early uses of bootleg and
bootlick and maybe boot liquor.

1836, July 11. Marion Journal 2/3 [1]
...Thou toad eater! Thou boot-lick!...Thou vender of coffee-house wit!....

1845, Southern Literary Messenger, November  p. 669/1    [2]
....set forth my peculiar opinions, and to flatter and bootlick the " dear
people , " since it was the custom , that common law , less flexible than
the laws of the Medes and Persians , I had to do , and accordingly I went
to the Court House , not prepared with a " neat and appropriate ...
[[also includes mentions of "cornjuice" and "barley bree" {brew?}]]

SG

[1]
https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/1029317655/?match=1&terms=bootlick&pqsid=qppMQO2LfNl2ojjFK-etvQ%3A17719%3A478846359

[2]
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Southern_Literary_Messenger/fHbgAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bootlicker&pg=PA669&printsec=frontcover

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