Card sharp versus card shark

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>It is sometimes said that the modern form "card shark" is a folk
>etymology from "card sharp". RHHDAS has 1942 for the first appearance
>of "card shark" and 1884 for "card sharp", though OED2 has 1859 for
>"card sharper", which would seem to be the older form. I've found
>these antedatings for "card shark": ....

OED shows a plausible German etymology for "shark" in the appropriate
sense, which is exemplified from 1599. "Sharp[er]" in the sense of
"swindle[r]" apparently dates from ca. 1700; I suppose it could be from an
alteration of "shark" but it might be independent based on a concept
analogous to the later "sharp practice".

Certainly "sharp[er]" and "shark" have been for a considerable period
virtually synonyms in this sort of meaning. The big "Century Dictionary"
(1889) gives as the entire definition of "sharp" (II. n. 3.) "A sharper; a
shark." And for "shark(2)" (n. 1.) "A sharper; a cheat; ...." This
dictionary apparently does not list the combination "card-shark" ... nor
"card-sharp" either although this was conventional at the time apparently
... "card-sharper" is a headword though.

Here is an analogous "shark" from 1891 from MoA (Cornell): "Some American
Riders. First Paper", by Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge, in _Harper's_
82(492):849-863 (May 1891): p. 854:

<<He is keenly fond of horse-racing, and is up to all the tricks of
gambling or jockeying. He can give long odds to the best race-track shark.>>

And an analogous "sharp" from 1888 from MoA (Cornell): "Increase of the
Standing Army", by Murat Halstead, in _North American Review_
146(376):310-318 (Mar. 1888): p. 316:

<<... the gamblers of the Wall streets great and small, and of the
race-courses, and slugging rings, and base-ball games, the pool-room sharps
of every degree, the great patrons of the telegraph, who keep the wires
heated with messages, the primary purpose of which is to take advantage of
the people at large ....>>

-- Doug Wilson