[Ads-l] Antedating of "Cornbread"

[Shapiro, Fred]

cornbread (OED 1775)

1719 Daniel Defoe The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 266 (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)  No, no, Friday tell them to live good, tell them to pray God, tell them to eat Corn-Bread, Cattle-Flesh, Milk, no eat Man again.

1737 Daily Gazetteer (London) 19 Oct. 2/1 (Newspapers.com)  Extract of a Letter, dated Maryland, 17 August 1737. ... Several of our People intend to send to England for Corn Bread; and the Apprehensions of wanting Increase every Hour, by the Continuance of the Drought and Coldness of the Weather, both of which are very bad for our Indian Corn, which is the chief Support of the poor People and our Slaves.

Fred Shapiro

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