a gesture; and cubana & green specs

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 23 Sep 2002, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

        [someone whose attribution was lost]
#>As for cubana, my definition of "cigar" is purely a guess, based on the
#>thought that cigars come from Cuba and rationalized by supposing that the
#>cigar was the sort of prize that might be fought for.  Cubana wasn't in
#>HDAS or OED.  I'll check DARE.  Meanwhile, translating "cubana" as "fight"
#>certainly makes sense, but then we need to cook up some reason why it
#>would mean "fight".
#
#"Cubana" = "cigar" is a perfectly fine guess IMHO, except that it doesn't
#seem natural in the context (without further information). "Cubana" =
#"cigar" appears from 1851 in Mathews (with a peculiar proposed etymology!).

I think it fits well, as something of small value used to indicate one's
willingness or eagerness to do something, as in, f'rex, "Why, for two
cents I'd...!"

-- Mark A. Mandel