Appendix talk:Fanciful 19th century American coinages

The words flagged "obsolete" here don't seem to appear except in modern word lists. What are the original sources? Equinox ◑ 22:44, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Probably contemporary newspapers.

Best bet for sources is probably Allen Walker Read, Milestones in the History of English In America, Publications of the American Dialect Society (PADS), volume 86, (2002), American Dialect Society, →ISBN, around p. 143–, which lists words with sources, as in “dumfungled”, citing Boston Morning Post, 13 Mar. 1838, p. 2, col. 3, which in turn refers to the New Orleans Bee.

…but doubt that we are going to find many attestations unless those newspapers are digitalized.

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 09:04, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

It's been a few years, but there's a full text searchable collection of early American newspapers provided by the LOC at Chronicling America. I think it'll be useful here. grendel|khan 11:42, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

I'd add to that: next year, Chronicling America is moving to a new site. (More information here.) It still provides full-text searches, but the permalinks may have to change, unfortunately. ("More information on how and what URLs will be redirected will be forthcoming. The current version of the website will be officially sunset later in 2024.") grendel|khan 19:54, 21 November 2023 (UTC)