Simoleon (1883)

[Jonathan Lighter]

John, thank you for reminding me of that cite, which remains unique. I have no further evidence of the existence of "Simon" as a U.S. term; conceivably it was simply an adaptation of the British term for a sixpence. There seems to be little enough reason to connect it with "simoleon."

   However, there's a further item of onomastic interest in the same 1859 anecdote :

  "The aforesaid battery had been consummated at a _doggery_ at Niggerville, now called Washington [in the State of Louisiana] near the town of Opelousas."

  JL

Jonathon Green <slang at ABECEDARY.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jonathon Green
Subject: Re: Simoleon (1883)
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Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Simoleon (1883)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've never heard of a "simon."
>
> Maybe it was originally a belnd of "Uncle _Sam_" and "napoleon."
>
>
Simon: first cited as a UK sixpence (now 2.5 pence) in B.E's _Dict. of
the Canting Crew_ (c.1698). It is a pun on the synonymous _tanner_, a
sixpence, which itself stems from a ponderous Biblical joke about St
Peter’s supposed banking transaction when he ‘lodged with one Simon a
tanner’. The simon = dollar use, which of course may have emerged
separately, is cited in Mathews, _Dict. Americanisms_ (1951) - 1859
_Harper’s Mag._ Sep. 572/2: I was first in say [i.e. first to announce a
bet], and bet a _Simon_.

JG




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