"Bargaining Chip": Antedating & Mystery

[Fred Shapiro]

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

> get a feel for the context of its use, but the whole point of the Google
> search was not that it was definitive but that abandoning a popular
> understanding of a phrase of such tender years seems rash.

It's rash if one is a student of popular fallacies, not if one is a
student of accurate etymologies.  I can't believe that Google results
in the year 2002 reflect accurate recollections or some kind of
well-founded folk-memory because some people now alive today were around
when the phrase originated in the early or mid-20th century.  There's also
the evidence of logic: a "bargaining chip" in older or recent usage means
something that you trade with, whereas poker is not a game of trading.

> |o| I realize that I am saying that 99% of etymological commentary is
> |o| worthless, but that is my viewpoint.
> |o|
>
> yet you persist.

I'm not sure of your point here; are you saying that my etymological
commentary is part of the 99%?  If I've accomplished anything in my life,
I've earned the right to be considered part of the 1%.  The 1% is
basically some lexicographers, myself, Barry Popik and a handful of
others.  Some of these handful of others are participants on this list.
It's been a pleasure to see the quality of the postings of people like
John Baker.

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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