Is this a good eponym? Were not the Rover Boys perhaps named from the word rove?
darn you, faldage... i headed into weekly themes to ask the very same question, delighted with the thought of how pleased ASp would be to find a discussion of a Weekly Theme word taking place right here, in Weekly Themes.
ah, well.
my question was essentially the same; has "rover" no earlier citations? surely Mr Stratemeyer didn't coin the word....
and out of curiosity, when did "rover" as a dog's name come into popular favor? and how apt the "naive" connotation is, particularly when stretched a bit to refer to a complete lack of intellect. now, *cats, OTOH, could surely never be referred to as rovers.
[white]*cats, OTOH, could surely never be referred to as rovers.[/white]
You've obviously never known a Tom unencumbered by a ball disconnectomy.
OTTH, I know a cat named Rover.
>has "rover" no earlier citations?
good grief! 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 176 Next to thy selfe, and my young Rouer, he's Apparant to my heart. 1700 Blackmore xxxiv Ch. Isaiah 259 Vultures and all the rovers of the air To the red fields of slaughter shall repair. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1612 Yet why drown Fancy in such depths as these? Return, presumptious rover! 1835 W. Irving Tour Prairies 172 The Indian of the west is a rover of the plain. 1849 Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia III. 70 These young rovers the French hunters call bętes de compagnie. 1872 Tennyson Last Tourn. 542 Harper, and thou hast been a rover too. 1933 H. G. Wells Bulpington of Blup v. 177 They were to go as ‘Rovers’ to the Russian Ballet. 1944 G. B. Shaw Everybody's Political What's What? xxxi. 279 Complaisant critics were welcomed in the theatre even when all the stalls were sold out and they had to be content as ‘rovers’ without allotted seats, sitting or standing about wherever they could.
does any of this predate Mr. Stratemeyer?
p.s. - yes, it stems from the verb, to rove.
p.p.s - it originated as an archery term -- A mark selected at will or at random, and not of any fixed distance from the archer. Also in later use, a mark for long-distance shooting (contrasted with butt). Most frequently in phr. (to shoot) at rovers.
p.p.p.s - a 'sea rover' is actually® a rover of another color -- originally a pirate, or sea robber -- it's an earlier word.
And wasn't the knight-errant the first of the rover boys?
KNIGHT-ER'RANT, n. [knight and L. errans, erro, to wander.]