Editing Nor'easter (section)

==Etymology and usage==
[[File:Compass thumbnail.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.90|Compass card (1607), featuring the spelling "Noreast"]]
The term ''nor'easter'' came to [[American English]] by way of [[British English]]. Early recorded uses of the contraction ''nor'' (for ''north'') in combinations such as ''nor'-east'' and ''nor-nor-west'', as reported by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', date to the late 16th century, as in John Davis's 1594 ''The Seaman's Secrets'': "Noreast by North raiseth a degree in sayling 24 leagues."<ref>"nor'-east, n., adj., and adv." [[OED]] Online. Oxford University Press, January 2018. Web. March 13, 2018.</ref> The spelling appears, for instance, on a [[Compass rose|compass card]] published in 1607. Thus, the manner of pronouncing from memory the 32 [[points of the compass]], known in maritime training as "boxing the compass", is described by Ansted<ref>Ansted. ''A Dictionary of Sea Terms'', Brown Son & Ferguson, Glasgow, 1933</ref> with pronunciations "Nor'east (or west)," "Nor' Nor'-east (or west)," "Nor'east b' east (or west)," and so forth. According to the OED, the first recorded use of the term "nor'easter" occurs in 1836 in a translation of [[Aristophanes]]. The term "nor'easter" naturally developed from the historical spellings and pronunciations of the compass points and the direction of wind or sailing.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}

As noted in a January 2006 editorial by William Sisson, editor of ''Soundings'' magazine,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.soundingsonline.com |title=Featuring Boating News, Stories and More |publisher=Soundings Online |access-date=August 18, 2012}}</ref> use of "nor'easter" to describe the storm system is common along the U.S. East Coast. Yet it has been asserted by linguist Mark Liberman (see below) that "nor'easter" as a contraction for "northeaster" has no basis in regional New England dialect; the [[Boston accent]] would elide the "R": ''no'theastuh'''.  He describes nor'easter as a "fake" word. However, this view neglects the little-known etymology and the historical maritime usage described above.

19th-century Downeast mariners pronounced the compass point "north northeast" as "no'nuth-east", and so on.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} For decades, Edgar Comee, of [[Brunswick, Maine]], waged a determined battle against use of the term "nor'easter" by the press, which usage he considered "a pretentious and altogether lamentable affectation" and "the odious, even loathsome, practice of landlubbers who would be seen as salty as the sea itself". His efforts, which included mailing hundreds of postcards, were profiled, just before his death in 2005 at the age of 88, in ''[[The New Yorker]]''.<ref>{{cite web | last =McGrath | first =Ben | title =Nor'Easter | work =The New Yorker: Tsk-Tsk Dept. | publisher =Condé Nast | date =September 5, 2005 | url =http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/09/05/050905ta_talk_mcgrath | access-date = June 3, 2013}}</ref>

Despite the efforts of Comee and others, use of the term continues by the press. According to ''Boston Globe'' writer [[Jan Freeman]], "from 1975 to 1980, journalists used the nor'easter spelling only once in five mentions of such storms; in the past year (2003), more than 80 percent of northeasters were spelled nor'easter".<ref>{{cite web | last =Freeman | first =Jan | title =Guys and dolls | work =Boston Globe: The Word | publisher =The New York Times Company | date =December 21, 2003 | url =http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/12/21/guys_and_dolls/ | access-date = June 3, 2013}}</ref>

[[University of Pennsylvania]] linguistics professor [[Mark Liberman]] has pointed out that while the Oxford English Dictionary cites examples dating back to 1837, these examples represent the contributions of a handful of non-New England poets and writers. Liberman posits that "nor'easter" may have originally been a [[Syncope (phonology)|literary affectation]], akin to "e'en" for "even" and "th'only" for "the only", which is an indication in spelling that two syllables count for only one position in metered verse, with no implications for actual pronunciation.<ref>{{cite web | last =Liberman | first =Mark | title =Nor'Easter Considered Fake | work =Language Log | date =January 25, 2004 | url =http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000386.html | access-date = June 3, 2013}}</ref>

However, despite these assertions, the term can be found in the writings of New Englanders, and was frequently used by the press in the 19th century.
* ''[[The Hartford Times]]'' reported on a storm striking New York in December 1839, and observed, "We Yankees had a share of this same "noreaster," but it was quite moderate in comparison to the one of the 15h inst."<ref>"Snow Storm", ''[[The Hartford Times]]'', Hartford, December 28, 1836</ref>
* [[Thomas Bailey Aldrich]], in his semi-autobiographical work ''[[The Story of a Bad Boy]]'' (1870), wrote "We had had several slight flurries of hail and snow before, but this was a regular nor'easter".<ref name="Aldrich1911">{{cite book|author=Thomas Bailey Aldrich|title=The Story of a Bad Boy|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofbadboy00aldr|access-date=May 19, 2013|year=1911|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin}}</ref>
* In her story "In the Gray Goth" (1869) [[Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward]] wrote "...and there was snow in the sky now, setting in for a regular nor'easter".<ref>{{cite book|title=Library of the World's Best Literature |author=Charles Dudley Warner |date=1896}}</ref>
* John H. Tice, in ''A new system of meteorology, designed for schools and private students'' (1878), wrote "During this battle, the dreaded, disagreeable and destructive Northeaster rages over the New England, the Middle States, and southward. No nor'easter ever occurs except when there is a high barometer headed off and driven down upon Nova Scotia and Lower Canada."<ref name="Tice1878">{{cite book|author=John H. Tice|title=A new system of meteorology, designed for schools and private students: Descriptive and explanatory of all the facts, and demonstrative of all the causes and laws of atmospheric phenomena|url=https://archive.org/details/anewsystemmeteo00ticegoog|access-date=May 19, 2013|year=1878|publisher=Tice & Lillingston}}</ref>

Usage existed into the 20th century in the form of:
* Current event description, as the Publication Committee of the New York Charity Organization Society wrote in ''Charities and the commons: a weekly journal of philanthropy and social advance, Volume 19'' (1908): "In spite of a heavy "nor'easter," the worst that has visited the New England coast in years, the hall was crowded."<ref>{{cite book|title=Charities and the Commons: A Weekly Journal of Philanthropy and Social Advance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HkXAAAAYAAJ|access-date=May 19, 2013|year=1908|publisher=Publication Committee of the New York Charity Organization Society|page=unknown}}</ref>
* Historical reference, as used by Mary Rogers Bangs in ''Old Cape Cod'' (1917): "In December of 1778, the Federal brig General Arnold, Magee master and twelve Barnstable men among the crew, drove ashore on the Plymouth flats during a furious nor'easter, the "Magee storm" that mariners, for years after, used as a date to reckon from."<ref name="Bangs1920">{{cite book|author=Mary Rogers Bangs|title=Old Cape Cod: The Land, the Men, the Sea|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.87424|access-date=May 19, 2013|year=1920|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.87424/page/n208 182]–}}</ref>
* A "common contraction for "northeaster"", as listed in Ralph E. Huschke's ''Glossary of Meteorology'' (1959).<ref name="Huschke1959">{{cite book|author=Ralph E. Huschke|title=Glossary of Meteorology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tI8JAQAAIAAJ|access-date=May 19, 2013|year=1959|publisher=American Meteorological Soc.|isbn=9780933876354}}</ref>

The [[Pacific Northwest]] is also affected by a similar class of powerful extratropical cyclones, known as [[Pacific Northwest windstorm]]s. While the storms on the East Coast are named "nor'easters", the Pacific Northwest windstorms are not called "nor'westers" because the cyclones' primary winds can blow from any direction, while the primary winds in nor'easters usually blow from the northeast.<ref name="nor'wester">{{cite news|url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/nov/04/weathercatch-the-northeast-had-a-noreaster-storm-w/|title=Weathercatch: The Northeast had a Nor'easter, why wasn't our storm a Nor'wester?|author1=Nic Loyd|author2=Linda Weiford|work=The Spokesman-Review|date=November 4, 2021|accessdate=November 4, 2021}}</ref>