Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Google Books
Any substantial historical newspaper database that features facsimiles of original pages (there are many suppliers of these, including Gale, NewspaperArchive, ProQuest, and Trove).
看,现在OED网站上,masculinity的最早年代提到了1571年。例子就是我们刚刚演示的Early English Books Online (EEBO)里的那句话,是不是很有意思呢,喜滋滋……
OED修订者说:
masculinity: antedated from 1748 to 1571
Munro-bagger (a climber who ‘collects’ the high peaks known as Munros): antedated from 1956 to 1910
monkess (a nun): antedated from 1729 to 1602 (a contribution from former OED researcher Christian Munk, who clearly misses his old job – he’s sent in numerous monk-related antedatings!)
Macaronesia (a region including the Canary Islands): antedated from 1917 to 1878
macular (referring to maculae or sunspots): antedated from 1826 to 1686
meaningless: antedated from 1796 to 1728
mendacity: antedated from 1646 to 1540 using EEBO; likewise moonbeam (to 1535 from 1600), multiplication table (1657 from 1662)
masonic: antedated from 1786 to 1761 using ECCO; likewise moonlit (to 1783 from 1817)
menopause: antedated from 1872 to 1858 using Google Books; likewise melodramatically (to 1820 from 1836)
meanie: antedated from 1927 to 1902 using NewspaperArchive; likewise mellophone (to 1901 from 1913)
mom: antedated from 1894 to 1846 using newspaper databases on ProQuest
2. A female with whom a person has a romantic or sexual relationship; a female partner or lover.
Used of a female member of an unmarried couple, in some contexts esp. a young couple whose relationship is conducted on a relatively casual basis.
1892 F. J. Furnivall Hoccleve's Minor Poems Ded. p. iv To the memory of Teena Rochfort Smith my much-respected and deeply-regretted girl-friend.
1928 R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances xi. 118 Daphne seems quite to have become Raymond's girl friend again.