Splib

[Jonathan Lighter]

I have no etymological suggestion here - except that "spade" + "liberal" seems to be supported by nothing whatsoever.

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: Splib
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am curious as to the origin myself.

I hope Jonathon Green can say something about it. His (Cassell's) slang
dictionary shows an etymology which I don't understand.

Elsewhere, Chapman's dictionary shows "spade" + "liberal" as the etymology
... which doesn't seem likely to me without strong evidence.

Perhaps HDAS has something.

-- Doug Wilson


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!