Fort Wayne Words

An interesting British publication called Wolrd Wide Words Investigating the English language across the globe has several articles with references to Fort Wayne. Most of the words are found in early Fort Wayne newspapers. Unfortunately after writing 930 issues of his weekly newsletter, the author Michael Quinion, stopped suddenly in 2017 and states that his nearly 3,000 articles will remain online for as long as possible. Enjoy reading his articles while they are online. Below are links to his articles that reference Fort Wayne.

  1. World Wide Words: Bowser Aug 4, 2007 ... We owe its existence to the late Mr Sylvanus Bowser, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Early in the twentieth century he invented what he called the ...
  2. World Wide Words: Going Dutch Jul 14, 2012 ... Fort Wayne Morning Journal, 24 Oct. 1897. The evidence makes clear that going Dutch and its synonyms are too recent and from the wrong ...
  3. World Wide Words: Take the biscuit Oct 4, 2008 ... An early example that shows how this sense developed was in the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette of Indiana in November 1880. There seemed to ...
  4. World Wide Words: Lollapaloosa May 12, 2007 ... Another early example is in a baseball game report in the Fort Wayne Sentinel of May 1903, one we may be glad to have missed (the reporter ...
  5. World Wide Words: All-singing, all-dancing Nov 11, 2006 ... As an example, the Robison Park Theatre in Fort Wayne, Indiana, advertised several acts around 1907 with the phrase talking, singing and ...
  6. World Wide Words: Flapdoodle May 20, 2006 ... The Fort Wayne Sentinel printed a story in 1900 about an old man who could not be persuaded of the value of these newfangled banks.
  7. World Wide Words Newsletter: 15 Jun 2013 2. Hippodroming Jun 15, 2013 ... Daily Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 18. Sep. 1878. The original hippodromes were chariot-racing circuits of classical Greece (the term is from ...
  8. World Wide Words: Soapbox Jun 28, 2008 ... An early literal reference appeared in March 1896 in the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel of Indiana: “Then the band divided and scattered ...
  9. World Wide Words: Jay-walking Oct 18, 2008 ... Numerous others turn up in newspapers in the following couple of years: in Washington DC in March 1913, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in June that ...
  10. World Wide Words -- 13 May 06 May 12, 2006 ... The Fort Wayne Sentinel printed a story in 1900 about an old man who could not be persuaded of the value of these newfangled banks.
  11. From wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG Fri Jul 7 12:25:16 ... "POTUS" appeared in every edition and is first recorded in print in the Fort Wayne News of Indiana on 25 February 1903: "This is the way a message is sent on ...

A search of his site for Indiana produces 134 hits. The first result is Hoosier. If time permits I may search for other titles at a later date.

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