Fwd: "Mason–Dixon, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: oedwotd at oup.com
Date: Wed, 8 May 2013 01:30:00 +0100
Subject: "Mason–Dixon, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com

Your word for today is: Mason–Dixon, n.

Mason–Dixon, n.
[‘ the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, taken as the
northern limit of slave-owning U.S. states before the abolition of
slavery. Later freq. used allusively in contexts in which cultural or
political aspects of the northern and the southern United States are
contrasted.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌmeɪsnˈdɪksn/,  U.S. /ˈmeɪsnˈdɪksən/
Forms:  17 Mason's and Dixon's,   17– Mason and Dixon's,   18 Mason
and Dickson,   18 Mason and Dixie's,   18 Mason and Dixon,   19–
Mason-Dixon.
Etymology: < the names of Charles Mason (1730–87) and Jeremiah Dixon
(1733–79), English surveyors and astronomers, who defined most of the
boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland by survey in 1763–7.
In form Mason & Dixie in quot. 1861 for Mason–Dixon line n. at sense 1
probably remodelled after Dixie n.2
 U.S.
 I.  Compounds.
 1.  Mason–Dixon line n the boundary between Maryland and
Pennsylvania, taken as the northern limit of slave-owning U.S. states
before the abolition of slavery. Later freq. used allusively in
contexts in which cultural or political aspects of the northern and
the southern United States are contrasted.
1776  T Jefferson Let. 26 Aug. in Papers (1950) I. 505, I am indebted
to you for a topic to deny to the Pensylvania [sic] claim to a line 39
complete degrees from the equator. As an advocate I shall certainly
insist on it; but I wish they would compromise by an extension of
Mason & Dixon's line.
1779  in  W. B. Reed Life & Corr. J. Reed (1847) II. 134 The Virginia
gentlemen offer to divide exactly the 40th degree with us... Perhaps
we [of Penna.] would be as well off with Mason and Dixon's line
continued.
1850  J. G. Whittier Old Portraits in Pr. Wks. (1889) II. 195 Every
petty postmaster south of Mason and Dixon's line became ex officio a
censor of the press.
1861 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 25 May 251/2 Suffysit to say I got across
Mason & Dixie's [sic] line safe at last.
1948 Sat. Evening Post 30 Oct. 124/4 This same little band has long
since adopted three war-ruined families in the old country—two in
Bizonia, one on the other side of Europe's bitter Mason and Dixon's
line.
1975 Times 20 Aug. 12/3 The tortured condition of the Jewish
middle-class intellectual seems..the dominant subject of novels
written north of the Mason-Dixon line.
1990  J. Shields Chesapeake Bay Cookbk. (1991) ii. 203/1 As soon as
one crosses the Mason-Dixon Line, hush puppies abound.
 II.  Simple uses.
 2.  The Mason–Dixon line.
1834  C. A. Davis Lett. J. Downing iii. 36 And he tell'd me Georgia
would go for me, arter the Gineral, as soon as any north of mason and
dickson.
1843 Knickerbocker 22 185 The writer, who dwelleth near Mason and
Dixon, descants upon the awful climate.
1948 Reporter (Downers Grove, Illinois) 21 Oct. 3/2 Two Dixiecrats,
out of their element north of the Mason-Dixon, nevertheless registered
their convictions on the States' Rights issue.
1977 Jrnl. Politics 39 729 It was then that the dividing line between
North and South began to be pushed down from the Mason-Dixon to the
Potomac.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/114641
________________________________

Visit the OED's home page at http://www.oed.com