To think; to “guess”; to “reckon.”
bef. 1812. Capital, gentlemen! capital! You are right humorsome, I calculate. What’s to pay?—John Bernard, ‘Retrospections of America,’ p. 307 (N.Y., 1887).
1850, 1857, &c. N.E.D.
1851. I kalkilated them curs o’ hisn wasn’t worth shucks in a bar fight.—‘Polly Peablossom’s Wedding,’ &c., p. 51.
1852. The New Englander calculates, the Westerner reckons.—Yale Lit. Mag., xvii. 177 (March).
1867.
| ‘Wal, Square, I guess so. Callilate to stay? | |
| I ’ll ask Mis’ Weeks; ’bout thet it ’s hern to say.’ | |
Lowell, ‘Fitz-Adam’s Story.’ |
1869. Kalklate to quit the business [of stage-driving] next trip. I’m getting well on in years, you see, and don’t like it so well as I used to, afore I was busted in!—J. Ross Browne, ‘Adventures in the Apache Country,’ p. 313.
