"roach" = 'joint' butt--anything before 1938?

[Sam Clements]

Yep.  The Meyer Berger story(which I haven't, but should have read).

What did he screw up?

SC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jesse Sheidlower" <jester at PANIX.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2003 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: "roach" = 'joint' butt--anything before 1938?


> On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 04:23:58PM -0500, Sam Clements wrote:
> > The term 'roach' is cited first in the US from a New Yorker story in
1938.
> > The writer visited a marijuana party in Harlem and came away with some
> > slang.  The OED cites from the New Yorker story--"A pinched-off smoke,
or
> > stub, is a roach."
>
> Is that the Meyer Berger story? Some colossal misunderstandings
> of the jargon in there, IIRC. He gets this one right, though.
>
> In any case, we don't have anything earlier, nor does HDAS.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>