Fascinating update, thanks for the info and the links. I’ve actually recommended Google Books to fellow researchers as a means of checking historical vocabulary usage - not definitive but definitely indicative. I assume that there is no known fixed interval establishing usage in speech before a word is captured in text?
Hi Robert, thanks. I'm not an expert, but your assumption sounds right. Interesting question, however. I can't find the reference but I recall that somewhere Patrick O'Brian felt he had to justify the use of a word in one of the Aubrey-Marturin novels set a few years before the word's first usage showed up in the OED. He figured it must have been current even if it hadn't been preserved yet in print.
Fascinating update, thanks for the info and the links. I’ve actually recommended Google Books to fellow researchers as a means of checking historical vocabulary usage - not definitive but definitely indicative. I assume that there is no known fixed interval establishing usage in speech before a word is captured in text?
Hi Robert, thanks. I'm not an expert, but your assumption sounds right. Interesting question, however. I can't find the reference but I recall that somewhere Patrick O'Brian felt he had to justify the use of a word in one of the Aubrey-Marturin novels set a few years before the word's first usage showed up in the OED. He figured it must have been current even if it hadn't been preserved yet in print.