"pre-owned"

[Arnold Zwicky]

dInIs sez:
 >This is an old euphemism for these junkers.

i have an extremely specific memory associated with this word.  a
sense of linguistic surprise on being confronted with a sign offering
"pre-owned Cadillacs", and in a very specific place, on penn avenue
close to the west reading/wyomissing border, west of reading, pa.  i
was in a car, going west, and i wasn't driving.

this could have been no later than 1961, and probably was three or
four years earlier.

on the other hand, it could just be a vivid dream.

arnold