[Ads-l] antedating "commie"

[Jonathan Lighter]

1924 _Northwestern Bulletin-Appeal_ (Minneapolis-St. Paul) (Oct. 11) 1
[GenealogyBank]: Communists continually bore from within...but it is felt
that the Commies are willing to support the whole ticket.

JL

On Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 7:24 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Fred Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > Doesn't the OED have a 1928 citation for the noun ?
>
> Excellent point, Fred. The OED does list a 1928 citation.
>
> [Begin excerpt from OED]
> commie, n.
> colloquial (originally U.S. derogatory).
>  A. n.   = communist n. 2.
> 1928 Scout 12 May 826/3   Now the game has come to an end. The
> ‘Commies’ have stopped doing their share of it and don't seem inclined
> to play any more.
> [End excerpt]
>
> I couldn’t find the issue of “The Scout” containing this text in
> Google Books, but I did find a match in a newspaper article which was
> based on the story in “The Scout”.
>
> The OED specified a U.S. origin for “commie”, but the first citation
> is from the quintessential Englishman Sir Robert Baden-Powell.
>
> Date: May 18, 1928
> Newspaper: The Wells Journal
> Newspaper Location: Wells, Somerset, England
> Article: Wells and District Boy Scouts' Association - "Coddling the
> 'Commies'"
> Quote Page 3, Column 2
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109726400/scoutcommies/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> “CODDLING THE ‘COMMIES’ ”
>
> Writing in the current number of “The Scout”—the official paper of the
> Boy Scouts— Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout, says: “I have
> only just heard of this new game for Scouts.
>
> The Communists have hung about outside Scouts Troop Headquarters
> handing out handbills to the Scouts as they arrived for parade.
>
> The game has been this. So soon as a Scout got his hand bill he went
> inside the clubroom, changed his appearance, went out by a back way
> and came round again to the front and got another hand hill, as if he
> was a fresh arrival. Whoever collected the biggest number of handbills
> in this way was declared the winner.
>
> Now the game has come to an end. The “Commies” have stopped doing
> their share of it and don't seem inclined to play any more. What a
> pity! The Scouts enjoyed it so!”
> [End excerpt]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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