"Bargaining Chip": Antedating & Mystery

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002, Rick H Kennerly wrote:

> |o| I think it's clear from looking at usages of "bargaining chip" and the
> |o| less common synonymous term "trading chip" that the essence of a
> |o| bargaining chip is that you trade it for something else.  Which doesn't
> |o| sound like something from poker.
>
> I'm not sure I follow.  Is it your contention that all of uses of bargaining
> chip in conjunction with other poker terminology in the same article are
> examples of mixed metaphors?

I'm sorry, I should have said "looking at early usages of 'bargaining
chip' and the less common synonymous term 'trading chip.'"  I believe that
one learns about etymology not by doing Google searches for current
usages, but rather by doing other kinds of searches or book research for
early usages.

I don't think usages in 2002 or other recent years tell us anything about
the origins of a term that seems to have originated in the 1950s or
earlier.  I cannot emphasize too much that one finds out about etymology
by historical research, not by speculation or conjecture.  To say, for
example, that "bulldike" may come from "bulldog-like" without early
evidence is, to me, not really a contribution to etymological inquiry.

I realize that I am saying that 99% of etymological commentary is
worthless, but that is my viewpoint.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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