"Bargaining Chip": Antedating & Mystery

[Joanne M. Despres]

> What a perfectly ghastly existence etymologists describe for themselves.  Do
> you suppose that it is it a life sentence or is there any possibility of
> parole?  It must be particularly terrifying to toil in a professional field
> where at any moment a mere dilettante is but a page turn away from ruining
> months of careful, meticulous tracking and that splendid journal article
> you'd been planning.
>

Yes, that's it, we're all suffering from professional paranoia and
venal motives, and we're a bunch of snobbish, musty-dusty killjoys.
 How else could we possibly disagree with you?

Joanne