Cigar Sayings

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf. " 'Close' only counts in horsehoes and hand grenades."

  JL

sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: sagehen
Subject: Re: Cigar Sayings
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>1. Close, But No Cigar
>
>Is anyone able to supply earlier citations for "close but no cigar" than
>the 1935 example (from the movie "Annie Oakley") given by HDAS?
>
>Can anyone refer me to any dictionaries, books, articles, or websites that
>have any kind of discussion of the derivation of this expression?
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cf. "A miss is as good as a mile!"
AM

~@:> ~@:> ~@:> ~@:>

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