[Ads-l] scalawag

[Ben Zimmer]

Back in Jan. 2013, Nathaniel Sharpe shared a number of "scalawag"
antedatings that he found while doing genealogical research. The earliest
example he found was in the April 11, 1832 Ithaca Chronicle (as
"scalliwag").

---
https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2013-January/124510.html
*Wednesday, April 11, 1832, Ithaca Chronicle (Ithaca, NY) No. 7, Vol. 3,
Page 3, Column 3, "Town Meetings"*
NIAGARA COUNTY. ---Cambria, Royalton, Lewiston, Newfane, and Porter, are
antimasonic.---Hartland, Wilson and Lockport, masonic, the latter by an
average majority of 4 votes, under the designation of the /scalliwag/
ticket, in support of which the Jackson and Clay men with some disaffected
antimasons, united.
---

I wrote about Nathaniel's discoveries here:
https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/a-scalawag-in-the-family-tree/

--bgz

On Fri, May 29, 2026 at 1:30 PM Jonathan Lighter <
00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> MW: "ca1848"
>
> All from Newspapers.com:
>
> 1838 _Daily Buffalonian_ (Buffalo, N.Y.) (May 19) 3: Mr.
> Barker...thinks he can prove to the court that  Mr. Cole called the
> gentlemen a "faction" and "scallawags."
>
> 1838 _Niles {Mich.] Intelligencer_ (Aug. 29) 2: W. W. Nash,
> _scalawag_, formerly tavern keeper..., now cruising with a roving
> commission to cheat the world.
>
> 1839 _Western Citizen_ (Urbana, O.) (May 14) 2: The miserable
> "scallawag," whose character needs...a Bowie knife to protect it, is
> unfit to mingle with civilized beings.
>
> Etc.
>
>
>

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