"tall, dark, and hansome" whence?

[Fred Shapiro]

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Sam Clements wrote:

> >From the Straightdope, as usual.
>
> I can find a hit on newspaperarchive for 1941, "dark and hansome."
>
> But when does the full treatment (tall, dark and hansome) start?  And what
> is meant by "dark?"

You've been tripped up by misspelling (is one allowed to use the word
"misspelling" on a linguists' list?) the word "handsome."  "Tall, dark and
handsome" goes back to 1882 on newspaperarchive.

Fred Shapiro


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