To hum. At home.

1

1787.  

        He prophecies (sic) the time will come,
When few shall drink West India rum—
Our spirits will be proof at home.
American Museum, i. 161/1 (Feb.).    

2

1794.  

        How happy is the man
  Who has a quiet home,
Who loves to do what good he can,
  And hates the demon Rum.
Gazette of the U.S., Phila., Aug. 25: from the Western Centinel.    

3

1819.  When he talked of hum, I took him for a wag, but soon found he so pronounced home.—“An Englishman,” in The Western Star; Mass. Spy, May 12.

4

1840.  “Well, where were you going?” “To hum, to see mother.”—Daily Pennant, St. Louis, July 10.

5

1845.  

        I wandered where a stranger stood
  With earnest heavenward gaze;
As if some mystic vision lay
  Beneath the horizon’s haze.
His eagle eye met mine; he spoke;
  I stood entranced and dumb:
“It’s gwine to rain like sixty, gal!
  You’d better dig for home!”
‘Lowell Offering,’ v. 81, ‘Sorrows of Sensibility.’    

6

1848.  

        Wen I left hum, I hed two legs, an’ they worn’t bad ones neither,
(The scaliest trick they ever played wuz bringin’ on me hither).
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ No. 8.    

7

1848.  Next mornin’, the gineral was found to hum with a sighter old gold pieces.—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 14 (Phila.).

8

1848.  “How d’ye dew, folks?” said the stranger, puffing away at a long cigar; “is the boss devil to hum?”—Id., p. 63.

9

1852.  Where do I live?—why, I live with my father to hum when I’m to hum; and I guess it’s about as good a hum as any body’s got.—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, Dec. 18.

10

1853.  He swore he had n’t a shillin’ to-hum.—Knick. Mag., xlii. 222 (Sept.).

11

1854.  When the long circles cluster round, I wish I was to-hum.—Springfield Republican, n.d. [For a fuller citation, see COAST.]

12

1854.  He said Wiggins war n’t so near straight on the licker question as his yaller dog at hum.—H. H. Riley, ‘Puddleford,’ p. 106 (N.Y.).

13

1854.  ‘Make yerselves to hum,’ said he; and so we staid, and did justice to the cider by drinking an immoderate quantity, and to ourselves, by saying many things witty and wise.—Knick. Mag., xliv. 16 (July).

14

1856.  There wa’n’t nobody to hum but her, so I went right in ker dash, and sot down.—Weekly Oregonian, Aug. 2.

15

1856.  

        By the powers of mud, old woman,
If I catch your daughter from home,
You’d better believe, I’ll live in the clover,
And enjoy it, I reckon, some.
Yale Lit. Mag., xxi. 171 (Feb.).    

16

1857.  He remembered nothing but home and his own dear mother knitting away in the humstead.—Knick. Mag., xlix. 39 (Jan.).

17

1857.  ’Squire Allen, who, folks said, was worth more than a million, was so moved by the good deacon’s eloquence, that after preachin’ time, he presented him with a bran new shining five-dollar gold piece, and invited him hum to dinner in the bargain.—Id., l. 241 (Sept.).

18

1858.  Jest you get right up neow, and go straight hum.—Id., li. 2 (Jan.).

19

1860.  I was a little shaver, helping the bigger boys Calvin and Enoch and all sorts of Puritan scrapnames to drive the cows ‘hum’ of an evening.—Id., lvi. 290 (Sept.).

20

1861.  Heow d’ ye du, Emerline? hope yer gwine ter stay ter hum a spell.—Atlantic Monthly, vii. p. 148 (Feb.).

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