Shillaber (1883)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

This is the synonym -- and likely the ancestral form -- of "shill"
("tout"/"booster"/"swindler's accomplice").

 From Ancestry.com: about 30 years earlier than in my poor-man's OED: with
no obvious interval change in sense:

"Indiana Weekly Messenger" [Indiana PA], 14 March 1883: p. 1, col. 5: "Mock
Auctions" (attributed to the "Chicago Times"):

<<The room is always small, with an office at one end where the swindled
purchaser pays for what he buys, and so situated as to protect the
shillaber in his sham purchase or the victim from the gaze of the crowd,
for it is not prudent to have two "guys" at a time at the cashier's desk.
....>>

There are about sixteen instances of "shillaber" in this article. The
shillaber here is the (secret) accomplice of an auctioneer/swindler pushing
bogus gold/silver watches. The shillaber pretends to be another innocent;
he admires and bids on and "buys" the misrepresented merchandise in order
to cheat the "guys" (i.e., the suckers or victims).

Usually no derivation is proposed for "shillaber". I have not found this
word spelled otherwise (except for one probable typo. with "shallaber"); in
particular, it apparently was NOT sometimes "shillibeer" to suggest a
connection with the famous London omnibus entrepreneur.

The early date is interesting. In 1883 the Boston humorist Benjamin P.
Shillaber was still alive and well-known (although retired). [He apparently
corresponded with P. T. Barnum in 1868, BTW.] OTOH, Lydia Shillaber's
cookbook apparently had not yet appeared.

Likely "shillaber" is derived from this surname, but perhaps from some
forgotten Shillaber (maybe a swindler?).

This word came up on Dave Wilton's BBS recently.

-- Doug Wilson