Boxed cards

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:06 PM -0500 12/12/00, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>At 06:20 PM 12/10/00 -0600, you wrote:
>>Can anyone help find the origin of "boxed," meaning a card that is faced
>>in the wrong direction in a pack of playing cards? What dictionaries
>>include that meaning?
>>
>>(This question is on behalf one of the editors of the American Contract
>>Bridge League's Bridge Bulletin.)
>
>I'm not familiar with the expression. I don't find it in the dictionaries.
>But I can speculate.
>
>Speculation 1:
>
>Likely the verb "box" in "boxed card" is the same as the verb "box" = "mix
>[up]"/"confuse", e.g., (1) with reference to livestock (incorrectly mixed
>herds/flocks) in Australia and NZ [OED, RHUD, etc.], (2) in mixing liquids
>such as paint [RHUD], (3) more generally -- in Australia, "to confuse
>someone or something" [RHUD].
>
>The Macquarie Australian dictionary shows "box up" = "to allow (separate
>mobs of sheep) to become indiscriminately mixed", "make a box of" = "to
>muddle". The Cassell slang dictionary shows "box-up" [NZ] =
>"quandary"/"state of confusion", "box" [Australia/NZ] (v.) = "to make a
>blunder, to mix something up" and (n.) = "a blunder, a mix-up, a mess".
>
>Speculation 2:
>
>Whence the word "box" = "mixup"/"mess"?
>
>Compare the Cassell slang dictionary's definitions of "bollix" (v.) [US] =
>"to make a mess of, to do badly", and "ballocks [up]" [Australia] = "to
>ruin, to make a mess of". These are originally the same word
>"ballocks"/"bollocks", originally = "testicles" (still current UK slang).
>
>I suspect the verb "box" in the "mix-up" sense originated as a -- possibly
>euphemistic -- alteration of this.
>
I think the "bollixed" derivation is farily implausible, and offer
another source (or pair of sources).  The RHHDAS has two senses for
"boxed" that strike me as not too unlikely candidates:

(1) 'drunk, drugged, high':  the face up card is too out of it to
know what it's doing

(2) 'dead' (orig. from the noun "box" = 'coffin').  The boxed card is
dead (for the relevant hand), incapable of being dealt.

Well, it's a thought.  I'm not putting my money where my electrons are.

larry