[Ads-l] Antedating of "Rebel Yell"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I love splitting hairs, so I have to observe that *a* yell uttered by
rebels is not the same as *the* rebel yell. In other words, Fred's ex.
seems to me not yet lexicalized.

The OED ex. from a few weeks later is more persuasive, esp. since it comes
from a rebel: "I saw General Dick Taylor's Louisianans debouching from the
undergrowth, and like a wave crested with shining steel rush toward the
fatal coaling and deadly battery with fixed bayonets, giving the Rebel yell
like mad demons."


JL

On Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 7:20 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> rebel yell (OED 1862 [June])
>
> 1862 Daily Express (Terre Haute, Ind.) 5 Apr. 2/2 (Newspapers.com)
>
> The rebels shout and yell, and think the "red field" won.  But far above
> the rebel yell is heard the Hoosier's battle cry.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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