Poetry & Contingency

In case you thought any of the top eleven most common words invented in verse were actually invented in verse, it’s worth following up with an illustration of the inherent contingency in any lexicographical record.

As everyone knows, the OED is in the midst of its first complete revision. My list of poetic neologisms was based on OED2, most of which was completed over a hundred years ago. Today’s lexicographers have more texts at their disposal than their predecessors. Antedating evidence quotations has therefore been a big part of the revision.

So, here’s my original list, summarizing OED3’s discoveries. All my pretty chickens.

1. job, n.
   OED2 first recorded use: Middleton, Mayor Quinborough (1627)
   OED3 first recorded use: Documents Office of Revels Edward VI (1557)
   Antedated by: 70 years
   Still a verse coinage: No.
   
2. control, n.
   OED2 first recorded use: Shakespeare, Comedey of Errors (1590)
   [not yet revised in OED3]
3. real, adj.
   OED2 first recorded use: Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well (1616)
   OED3 first recorded use:   Medit. on Supper of our Lord (1400)
   Antedated by: 216 years
   Still a verse coinage: Yes, but a large proportion of surviving early texts are in verse, which is why the original list excluded words attested before 1500.
4. central, adj.
   OED2 first recorded use: More, Platonical Song of the Soul (1647)
   [not yet revised in OED3]
5. model, n.
   OED2 first recorded use: Gascoigne, Posies, Herbes (1575)
   OED3 first recorded use: tr. Euclid, Elements of Geometry (1570)
   Antedated by: 5 years
   Still a verse coinage: No.
6. concerned, adj.
   OED2 first recorded use: Cowley, Davideis (1656
   [not yet revised in OED3]
7. American, n., adj.
   OED2 first recorded use: Sylvester, Du Bartas (1598)
   OED3 first recorded use: in the same sense, Zelauto (1580); but even earlier in the sense of an inhabitant of the Americas, in a tr. of New Found Worlde (1568).
   Antedated by: 18-30 years
   Still a verse coinage: No. And Sylvester’s usage is deleted from the record!
8. despite, prep.
   OED2 first recorded use: Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2 (1616)
   OED3 first recorded use: Marston, Antonio’s Reuenge (1602)
   Antedated by: 14 years
   Still a verse coinage: Yes! Winner!
9. list, n.6
   OED2 first recorded use: Shakespeare, Hamlet (1602)
   [not yet revised in OED3]
10. act, v.
    OED2 first recorded use: Warner, Albion’s England (1602)
    OED3 first recorded use: in the same sense, in Reformed Catholike (1597), but in an earlier sense deduced by OED, in Register of Osney Abbey (1460).
    Antedated by: 5-162 years
    Still a verse coinage: No.
11. modern, adj.
    OED2 first recorded use: Dunbar, Poems (1513)
    OED3 first recorded use: Hay, Law of Armys (1456)
    Antedated by: 57 years
    Still a verse coinage: No. This one really hurts.