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Face it, America: Boston has a way with words
The Hub is a city on a hill of linguistic invention.
By Ralph KeyesUpdated May 9, 2021, 3:00 a.m.
Email to a Friend THE GERRY-MANDER, published in the Boston Gazette, March 26, 1812.ELKANAH TISDALE (1771-1835) / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In a 1955 magazine column, British journalist Henry Fairlie referred to those powerful individuals who actually run things, on and off stage, as âthe establishment.â Fairlieâs usage suggested he had coined this term. When debunkers provided evidence to the contrary, Fairlie conceded their point. So who did say it first? Fairlieâs search for an answer led him to Bostonâs Masonic Temple, where on Dec. 9, 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a lecture titled âThe Conservative.â Emerson called the subject of his talk âan upholder of the establishment,â the earliest known use of that term in its contemporary sense.
On May 3, 1921, New York City reporter John J. Fitz Gerald used the term in print for the first time in print, making Monday the 100th anniversary of the now-ubiquitous nickname for the five boroughs, according to a pair of dogged researchers.
The birth of the Big Apple: First mention of New York’s enduring nickname dates back 100 years Larry McShane, New York Daily News
Back in 1921, when Babe Ruth was in right field for the Yankees and Mayor John Hylan in City Hall, a horse-racing writer for the New York Morning Telegraph overheard a Louisiana chat between two Black stablehands.
The pair mentioned an upcoming trip from New Orleans to New York the Big Apple, as they called it.
On May 3, 1921, cub reporter John J. Fitz Gerald used the term in print for the first time, making Monday the 100th anniversary of the now-ubiquitous nickname for the five boroughs, according to a pair of dogged researchers.