"in a jiffy" antedated (?) to 1780

[Joel S. Berson]

Best I can do from EAN is 1794 (Columbian
Centinel [Boston], Apr 5, page 2).  The OED, by
the way, has 1785 ("in six jiffies") and 1796 ("in a jiffy").

Joel

At 3/31/2011 07:04 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>1780 The Town and country magazine, or universal
>repository ..., Volume 12, Feb, 1780, p. 88 col.
>1 [google ORC "jiffs" corrected in the first case]:
>Most of the limbs of the law do every thing in a
>_jiffy_, but ask what they mean, and they would
>be as much puzzled, as if you required of them
>the explanation of a common act of parliament.
>If such gibberish were confined to hackney ...
>...that she could turn Sir William B________ round her finger in a _jiffy_.
>http://books.google.com/books?id=-wM3AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA88&dq=%22in+a+jiffs%22&hl=en&ei=v1yUTaH9M5HmtgeH94GLDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22in%20a%20jiffs%22&f=false
>
>cf. 1791 Poems, miscellaneous and humorous
>Edward Nairne
>... and bus'ness slack,
>  I stept to Joe's, and got a snack, J
>  A pot of mildchee §, and a whiff, 4
>  And off again in half a jiff! ...
>[footnote] Jiff or jiffy, a jocular expression,
>and means a short space of time. Innumerable are
>the expressions  (particularly amongst sailors) ....
>
>Stephen Goranson
>http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org