On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:15:28 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:

>Richard Wright wrote:
>> On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:00:55 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:
>>
>> <snipped>
>>> Sure, but then one would have to find every relevant entry. Not
>>> quite the same as having some source that lists the earliest known
>>> occurrences of such names/concepts.
>>
>> I can't see how anybody could begin to compete with the online Oxford
>> English Dictionary and its battalions of readers that haved searched
>> for occurrences over the last 150 years.
>>
>> I am unsure what you mean by the problem of having to 'find every
>> relevant entry'. You type in the word, up comes the list of earliest
>> known occurrences, together with changes in meaning over the
>> centuries.
>>
>> Take just one entry - the favourite English dessert 'Spotted Dick' -
>> How long would it take you to do the reading that went into this
>> single entry?
>>
>> OED defines it as a ' suet pudding made with currants or raisins'.
>>
>> Among the citations a
>>
>> 1849 A. SOYER Modern Housewife 350 Plum Bolster, or *Spotted Dick. -
>> Roll out two pounds of paste.., have some Smyrna raisins well washed
>> [etc.].
>>
>> 1892 Pall Mall G. 15 Dec. 2/3 The Kilburn Sisters..daily satisfy
>> hundreds of dockers with soup and Spotted Dick.
>>
>> 1854 C. M. SMITH Working-Men's Way in World xii. 288 For supper come
>> smoking sheep's-heads..and ‘*spotted dog’, a very marly species of
>> plum-pudding.
>>
>> a1936 KIPLING Something of Myself (1937) i. 18 An enormous currant
>> roly-poly - a ‘spotted dog’ a foot long.
>>
>> 1974 Country Life 25 Apr. 990/1 The other hound..reminded me of a
>> spotted dog pudding at school.
>>
>> All I can say is 'the best of luck' if you tried to compete with the
>> OED.
>>
>> Richard
>>
>Yes, but you have to have something in mind to type it in. I
>think it would be a great challenge to look for earlier
>occurrences of relevant food terms. A list would facilitate that.
> :-)

OK. It would be nice to have the best of both worlds. :=)

Richard