Arnold Zwicky's Blog

One Response to “Data points: verbing 7/31/10”

1. arnold zwicky Says:
   August 1, 2010 at 6:23 am | Reply

   “ShadowFox” writes with a Google Books link for the 1803 cite; with further 19th-century cites for the OED‘s first sense (above); and with cites for the OED‘s second, very different, sense of the verb:

   The GB copy of 1803 reference is here http://bit.ly/9vEGr9

   The mechanical meaning of “journal v.” (2.) gets 6000+ raw ghits in GB for date before 1895. The actual number is smaller, but still there are a lot of hits in the 1880s and 1890s. (OED has it back to 1875/1881, but GB has it to 1845 http://bit.ly/9P3yEi, then 1854 http://bit.ly/bQGHJB and 1858 http://bit.ly/aEAzuf and http://bit.ly/b5wA8B .)

   But, back to 1.–

   The earliest reference appears to be from 1811, but it’s a poem fragment appearing in a review of an 1810 book (no indication how old the poem is).

   http://bit.ly/bFfiPX
   Every petty fault
   Is duly journalled till the wretch whose trade
   To torture comes in stated round, with cry
   Of slaiet to Jog !’ P. 81.

   A few other examples (there are plenty more):

   From April 1830:
   http://bit.ly/99jIaa
   But it is nevertheless true that a thorough knowledge of diseased appearances after death, in every variety of case and constitution, of type and temperament, will form a key to the proper understanding of symptoms during life, without which their indications must have a greater tendency to mislead than to guide; and he who has watched with cautious observation the various symptoms which various forms of fever have assumed during various stages of their course ; he who has journalled these symptoms with sufficient accuracy to render them available for future reference, and who at last has inspected the bodies of his dead, comparing and elucidating what he discovers upon inspection with the daily history of his symptoms, will in a short time be sufficiently qualified to pronounce upon what is going on within, by watching what is going on without, and to contend with internal disease as scientifically and as successfully as though his patient were translucent, and he could witness with his own eyes the covert operations of the malady.

   From 1842:
   http://bit.ly/dyZZOG
   The various countries of Europe have been be-toured, and be-journalled hard and dry, and even Mont Blanc has become a sort of Macadamized Parnassus ; but we believe our readers will have no reason to find fault with us, for giving them a few extracts of the narrative of Mr. Cleveland’s sojourn upon this distant and mostly undescribed coast.

   From 1849:
   http://bit.ly/aSfm9s
   Now that I am at Forest Hill agayn, I will essay to continue my journalling.

   From October 1886:
   http://bit.ly/bmZ1rQ
   All his notes and references are carefully indexed and journalled, and so systematized that he can turn, without a moment’s delay, to any authority he wishes to consult.

   From Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1888:
   http://bit.ly/cVCCtA
   The check was then sent in the usual course of business by the clearing house to the GNB, the drawee, where it was filed and journaled.

   From Mark Twain, The American Claimant, 1892:
   http://bit.ly/btG6iC (p. 73 for actual text, but also in the TOC)
   He seized his most precious possession, his journaled Impressions of America, and darted from the room.

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