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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:18:58 -0500
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He used it in A Tramp Abroad and Life on the Mississippi, and in a letter in 
1875.  OED cites earliest use as 1883.

See Ramsay & Emberson, A MARK TWAIN LEXICON (1938, rep 1963).

They list 7,802 words, of which 4,342 are apparently new words invented by 
Mark Twain.

They checked their entries against OED, Webster, etc. It's a complicated 
subject but you can read their 119pp. introduction to get a good idea of 
their approach and how to treat their results.

With so many new Mark Twain works appearing since 1938, it's time for a 
revised edition of this extremely useful but outdated work, and it seems to 
me the perfect sort of project for an online database. Any lexicographers 
lurking out there?

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Davis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 8:02 AM
Subject: M-W WOTD: "galley-west"


> http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/
>
> The Word of the Day for March 17 is:=20
>
> galley-west   \gal-ee-WEST\   adverb
> : into destruction or confusion
>
>
> "American author Mark Twain is on record as one of the first to use
> "galley-west" in his writing. Etymologists believe the word is a
> corruption of dialectal English "colleywest" or "collyweston." The
> earliest appearance of those words, used with the meaning "askew or
> awry," dates from the late 16th century. The ultimate source of
> "colleywest" and "collyweston" is not known but is suspected to be from
> a personal name. When "galley-west" is used in speech or writing, the
> verb "knock" usually precedes it."
>
> [Interesting. I don't know that he made-up many words - Shakespeare a
> far greater coiners of neologisms than our boy. Does anyone recall where
> he used this one? /DDD ]
>
>
>
> -----
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