Initially when I saw ‘goal’ on your site in reference to obvious jails or prisons I thought your spell checker had run amok.
But your recent post ‘Broke Goal’ - Old Baltimore Town Jailbreak, states that gaol was a Middle English term for jail. Are you sure?
My source,
link › en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gaol
I’m not just a crotchety old guy, I’m also a purchaser of your books. I have especially enjoyed the ‘America in Chains’ books.
Keep up the good fight.
-Keith
Thanks Keith for checking this. The old ads for runaway servants up until 1796, as far as I can tell, use gaol for jail in America. I transposed the letter in the title 'Broke Gaol' and am fixing that. My spell check has been reversing it when I work in Word. I am wondering if the o and the a were flipped for modern ball games, which involve capturing a ball and putting it in an often netted enclosure of some sort. When I was a kid we played a game of tagged called "all caught" witch had one person who was IT acting as a jailer of sorts, putting us all in a box outlined on the grass.
The corrected article is here ‘Broke Gaol’
I really appreciate these kinds of emails and comments, as I have no proof reader or editor for most of my books—none of the history in fact. There were well known gaols like Gallowgate and Newgate in London and Scotland which provided the basis for the term "runagate" used to designated escaped servants. Below is the head and tail of another servant listing which mention the infamous gaol and its gaoler. The full listing will be discussed under the title below.
‘To Be Sold for the Same’
A Peek at the Police State of Pennsylvania, October 12, 1769
October 12, 1769
The Pennsylvania Gazette
New Castle County, October 3, 1769.
WAS committed to the gaol of this county, upon suspicion of being runaway servants..., by THOMAS PUSEY, Goaler.
A Portion of the Wikipedia Listing for Gaol
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English gayole, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, via Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, for Vulgar Latin *caveola, a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). See also cage.
Pronunciation[edit]
IPA(key): /dʒeɪl/
Rhymes: -eɪl
Noun[edit]
gaol (plural gaols)
1.(Britain, Ireland, Australia) Alternative spelling of jail [quotations ▼]
Usage notes[edit]
Gaol was the more common spelling between about 1760 and 1830,[1] and is still preferred in proper names in some regions. Most Australian newspapers use jail rather than gaol, citing either narrower print width or the possibility of transposing letters in gaol to produce goal.[2]
Synonyms[edit]
See also Wikisaurus:jail
Verb[edit]
gaol (third-person singular simple present gaols, present participle gaoling, simple past and past participle gaoled)
1.(Britain) Alternative spelling of jail
