A robin is a robin is a robin -- Sewall 1703

Speranza

The sources expanded:

OED antedating for "robin" (American bird)

From: trio@xxxxxxxxxx (Donna Richoux)
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:30:35 +0100
Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:24:25 -0800 (PST), "jerry_friedman@xxxxxxxxx"
wrote:

Me again. "Chickadee" led me to "robin" -- the real one, not that tiny
Rightpondian impostor.

Does anyone feel like checking whether the OED on line or other sources has anything before 1798?

OED:
Robin

1

3. N. Amer. The red-breasted thrush, Turdus migratorius.

FIRST CITE:

1703
S. SEWALL
"Diary" 16 Mar. (published in 1879)
II. 75

"The Robbins cheerfully utter their Notes this morn."

---

NEXT QUOTE:

1798 Monthly Mag. May 331/2

"The American robin, larger than ours."

The "Dictionary of American English", vol. 4 (Chicago, 1944) defines
"robin" as "a large-red-breasted thrush, Turdus (syn. Merula)
migratorius."

Citations begin with the Sewall 1703, then Fithian 1774
and Wilson 1808.

So the order here should be:

Sewall 1703 "The Robbins cheerfully utter their Notes this morn."
Fithian 1774
1798 -- "The American robin, larger than ours."

A separate quotation refers to the practice of hunting
and eating robins, beginning with:

1759 Essex Inst. Coll.
"Supped on Robens which my Chum and Wingate killed."

[Followed by 1775, 1805, and more.]

"Do I see a serious attempt to force the OED to document all American
usage?"

"They have a rather patchy track-record there." (Donna Richoux).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

•From: "jerry_friedman@xxxxxxxxx"
•Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:54:47 -0800 (PST)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Nov 25, 9:30 am, t...@xxxxxxxxxx (Donna Richoux) wrote:

Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:


I've just discovered that there's one of those in a library about
half a mile from my house.


The Am. Dict. defines
"robin" as "a large-red-breasted thrush, Turdus (syn. Merula)
migratorius." Citations begin with the Sewall 1703, then Fithian 1774
and Wilson 1808. A separate quotation refers to the practice of hunting
and eating robins, beginning with:

1759 Essex Inst. Coll. Supped on Robens which my Chum and Wingate
killed. [Followed by 1775, 1805, and more.]

....

Jerry Friedman:

"Thanks to both! So much for antedating this time. If it's of any interest, none of the citations above are in Goo Boo."

"There are two uses of "robin" for the American bird from 1792."

"One is in "The American Geography", by Jedidiah Morse.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PUcMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA59

Morse is not what you'd call reliable on natural history.

The other is "The History of New-Hampshire", volume III, by Jeremy
Belknap.

http://books.google.com/books?id=rzIBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA172

"Some of his vernacular names are charming:

"hang bird" (Orchard Oriole, which builds a hanging nest?), "little hang-bird" (Northern
Parula, ditto?), "tom teet" (Black-capped Chickadee), and my favorite,
"humility" (Ruddy Turnstone?)."

"But the earliest one is from 1789: "Cultivation of the Vine", by
Edward Antill, from /Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society."

http://books.google.com/books?id=LbgAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA230

"I think I checked all the earlier hits on "robin" at Goo Boo, but I
might have been careless, or they might have an OCR error."

Jerry Friedman:

"I'm not going to search for "robbin" right at the moment."

"I checked to see whether S. Sewall was writing from an American perspective
and found:
http://www.s9.com/Biography/Sewall-Samuel
Sewall, Samuel
Born: 1652 AD
Died: 1730 AD, at 77 years of age.
Nationality: American
Categories: Abolitionist
1652 - Born at Hampshire, England on the 28th of March.
1661 - He emigrated from England to the Massachusetts colony.
1692 - He also entered local politics, and was elevated to the judiciary
that judged the people in Salem accused of witchcraft.
1730 - Died in Boston, Massachusetts on the 1st of January.
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)