[Ads-l] Antedating of "Vaudeville" (Comic Performance)

[Shapiro, Fred]

vaudeville (OED, 2., 1827)

1809 Times (London) 22 Aug. 3/1 (Newspapers.com)

A French journalist has published a table of all the new dramatic pieces which have appeared in the principal theatres of Paris since the year 1800. ... 400 vaudevilles, and 568 melo-dramas.

NOTE: There are many mentions of "vaudeville" I have found in English-language sources before 1809, but I do not regard these as antedatings because the word is not naturalized (it is printed in italics or is otherwise clearly a use of the French etymon).

Fred Shapiro

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