"fair to middlin'"

[Gerald Cohen]

    The following origin of "fair to middlin'" was passed along to me today
by a man who grew up on a cotton farm in the bootheel of Missouri.  He
tells me that  "fair to middlin'" probably has its origin in the speech of
people who work with cotton.  I have not yet had a chance to check this in
the reference works.

    He points out that there are four rankings of cotton according to the
length of the fibers:
1) good, 2) middlin', 3) fair, 4) poor.  Hence: "fair to middlin'."

     Sounds plausible.

----Gerald Cohen



gcohen at umr.edu