Just in time for the holiday season, Heidi Harley wrote here on the discovery of an early citation for eggnog, apparently antedating the first OED cite of 1825 by about fifty years. On the American Dialect Society mailing list, independent scholar Joel S. Berson posted some follow-up findings based on a search of historical databases. Below is an edited version of Joel's post with additional material.
Yes, that must have been a pleasant discovery while reading before the fire, but (as Margot Charlton wrote) the databases are the Scrooges. In the "bah humbug" tone so appropriate to the day, I note that the OED is unlikely to be able to use a c1774 date for Heidi Harley's student's find, since Boucher only reports orally for that date. The OED can use the 1806 date (I think actually 1807, as I'm told by Harvard's on-line catalogue for the Houghton Library copy, and by WorldCat), which is still an antedating of the OED's 1825, but —
E.A.N. Scrooge (more fully known as the Early American Newspapers database) tells me the two earliest occurrences of "egg-nog" (with or without hyphen) locatable in 18th century colonial American papers are:
(1) The Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), 1788 Oct. 16, page 3, col. 1 (within an essay whose discourse is somewhat mysterious to me):
Rummaging now the brain, many conceits may be found, much truth of all kinds, whole store rooms of curses and unmentionable damns, with devils of all shapes and colours, thousands of encomiums on oysters, hot suppers, and devilish fine wines; and there are so many different qualities and dispositions that intestine wars are never over; when wine and beer, punch and eggnog meet, instantly ensues a quarrel, and it is raised so high, that the brains boil like mush in a pot with heat, and was it not for the holes I before mentioned, which let out the steam, the skull must be cracked.
(2) A few years later, in the Virginia Chronicle (Norfolk) of 1793 Jan. 26, p. 3, col. 2, it appears seasonably:
Messrs. Baxter & Wilson,
On last Christmas Eve several gentlemen met at Northampton court-house, and spent the evening in mirth and festivity, when EGG-NOG was the principal Liquor used by the company. After they had indulged pretty freely in this beverage, a gentleman in company offered a bet that not one of the party could write four verses, extempore, which should be rhyme and sense; and when it was taken up by a gentleman present, who wrote the first five [sic; I count six] verses following; to which the subjoined answer was immediately given. As I think them applicable to the occasion, you will oblige me by inserting them in your next week's paper.
January 14, 1793. S———————
The trembling Muse with anxious care to please,
May wish, perhaps, to appear with grace and ease;
But vain, alas! are all the powers of art,
When awful Dullness hangs upon the heart.
Each brisk emotion which the soul receives,
And quickens fancy with the wit it gives,
Must cease to flow, when leaden slumbers bind,
And quell the transports of the glowing mind.
For strength or splendor never yet arose,
From foggy brains which languish'd for a dose.
In pity then permit the strain to end,
In kind compassion to your drowsy friend.
The ANSWER.
Let Wine, alas! resign its boasted praise
To rouse the Muse, and prompt the Poet's lays,
Since rival worth now boasts superior art,
To infuse the transports of the glowing heart.
'Tis Egg-Nog now whose golden streams dispense
Far richer treasures to the ravish'd sense.
The Muse from Wine derives a transient glare,
But Egg-Nog's draughts afford her solid fare.
The first escapes by exhalation's power,
And leaves the Muse more languid than before.
The latter, firm, remains her steady friend,
Sustains her talk, nor quits her to the end.
On old prescription one relies for fame,
While solid merit props the others claim.
Of course, we have only the submitter's claim, a full month later, that the two poems were actually written on the occasion, and by two separate persons (or is that personae?). Colonial poets and wits, such as Mather Byles, or Honest Ben, were not above dissembling.
In its issue of 1793 April 6, page 3, col. 2, the Virginia Chronicle printed a response "To the Northampton Poets, on their Poetry". It begins:
ILLUSTRIOUS bards! what pen can write your praiseand, comparing them to Homer and Virgil, praises the paper for publishing
each sublime matter,
Who drinks egg-nog, who mixes wine with water,
Who died last, as also who was married,
Whose wench brought forth a son, and whose miscarried.
These are fit subjects for poetic brains.
...
Great WASHINGTON, his country'd [sic] pride and boast,
Will never in your poetry be lost.
Even TOMMY PAINE will live to future ages,
And be the Hero of poetic pages.
...
And be assur'd, of this there is no telling:
Which is the best your diction, or your—spelling."
OCCIDENTALIS
April 1, 1793.
I wonder about the above reference to George Washington, considering Heidi's discussion of his recipe.
[Guest post by Joel S. Berson]
[Update #1: And if you're curious what went into eggnog at the turn of the 19th century, Joel Berson posted to ADS-L a citation with "perhaps the earliest list of ingredients":
The American travellers, before they pursued their journey, took a hearty draught each, according to custom, of egg-nog, a mixture composed of new milk, eggs, rum, and sugar, beat up together.
Travels through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By Isaac Weld, Junior. Fourth Edition. London: Printed for John Stockdale, Piccadilly. 1800. Page 81. [Google Books, title page viewed. ESTC lists a 1799 edition; Houghton has a copy of that.]
Joel adds, "This is at an inn near Baltimore, on the road to Philadelphia. Perhaps another hint of a Middle Atlantic origin."]
[Update #2: Also on ADS-L, Joanne Despres of Merriam-Webster points out that Mitford Mathews' Dictionary of Americanisms and William Craigie's Dictionary of American English both quote the Boucher passage, dating it ca. 1775. Merriam-Webster uses that date for its eggnog entry, though as Joel Berson notes above it might not pass muster as an OED first citation date.]
[Update #3: Fred Shapiro supplies two more early citations:
1788 New-Jersey Journal 26 Mar. 2 (America's Historical Newspapers)
A young man with a cormerant appetite , voraciously devoured, last week, at Connecticut farms, thirty raw eggs, a glass of egg nog, and another of brandy sling.
1795 Freneau, Philip Morin. Poems written between the years 1768 & 1794 (Eighteenth Century Collections Online) 345
To the sign of the Anchor we then were directed,
Where captain O'Keef a fine turkey dissected;
And Bryan O'Bluster made love to egg-nog.
The 1788 cite would appear to be the earliest known example from a primary source.
[Update #3: Fred Shapiro supplies two more early citations:
1788 New-Jersey Journal 26 Mar. 2 (America's Historical Newspapers)
A young man with a cormerant appetite , voraciously devoured, last week, at Connecticut farms, thirty raw eggs, a glass of egg nog, and another of brandy sling.
1795 Freneau, Philip Morin. Poems written between the years 1768 & 1794 (Eighteenth Century Collections Online) 345
To the sign of the Anchor we then were directed,
Where captain O'Keef a fine turkey dissected;
And Bryan O'Bluster made love to egg-nog.
The March 1788 cite would appear to be the earliest example from a primary source found thus far, just beating out Joel Berson's October 1788 cite above.]
Posted by Benjamin Zimmer at December 24, 2007 03:29 PM