dasher/cut a dash

[George Thompson]

The header to the message I posted last Friday ("Those hip New
Yorkers") was alluding to the point made in this posting, I having
forgotten that a computer hiccup had obliterated Friday's version of
this instead of transmitting it.

The point being, that the citations below, that antedate "dasher" (a
stylish chap who cuts a dash) to within 2 years of the earliest OED &
HDAS citations, which are from English sources, suggests that faddish
words and faddish behavior travelled more quickly from England to
American in the 18th and early 19th century than is realized.  We can
see this too in the posting I made last month, that offered an
antedating of the word "dished" (tired) to not many years after the
earliest English citation, and other such postings, including the
wordlist of prizefighting slang that Jerry was so kind as to publish in
his CoE last year.

In any event, for whatever it may prove:

        To Cut a Dash.  ***  Never think of following any business --
such conduct is unworthy of any dasher.
        In the evening never walk straight along the footways but go in
a zig-zag direction.  This will make some people believe you have been
dashing down your three bottles after dinner -- No dasher comes home
sober.
        Diary, or Loudon's Register, March 29, 1792, p. 2, col. 1

        Petty Fraud. -- We happened to be present yesterday when a
smart-looking Buck drove up his gig to a livery stable door, and
ordered the hostler, with a fashionable negligence of manner, to take
care of his horse and rub him down, and he would call for him in a
couple of hours.  He had hardly gone, when the livery stable keeper
told a laughable anecdote to a gentleman present, of a young Dasher who
came to his stable in the same way last year and left a horse and gig,
which was called for by the owner two days afterwards, who had come in
search of it; the young gentleman having only resorted to this
ingenious contrivance to avoid paying the hire.  ***
         N-Y E Post, May 19, 1803, p. 3, col. 1

OED: Dasher.  1. A person who dashes; spec. one who ‘cuts a dash’; a
dashing
person; a ‘fast’ young woman (colloq.).  1790 DIBDIN Sea Songs, Old
Cunwell (Farmer), My Poll, once a dasher, now turned to a nurse. 1802
M. EDGEWORTH Almeria (1832) 292 She was astonished to find in high life
a degree of vulgarity of which her country companions would have been
ashamed; but all such things in high life go under the general term of
dashing. These young ladies were dashers. 1807 W. IRVING Salmag. (1824)
361 To charter a curricle for a month, and have my cypher put on it, as
is done by certain dashers of my acquaintance.


dash, noun, 1, 10. A gay or showy appearance, display, parade: usually
in phr. to cut a dash, to make a display (see CUT v. 25), in Sc. to
cast a dash.  1715 PENNECUIK Tweeddale 16 (Jam.) Large orderly terrace-
walks, which in their summer verdure cast a bonny dash at a distance.
1771 FOOTE Maid of B. I. Wks. 1799 II. 213 The squire does not intend
to cut a dash till the spring. a1774 FERGUSSON Poems (1789) II. 32-33
(Jam.) Daft gowk,..Are ye come here..To cast a dash at Reikie's cross?
1842 P. Parley's Ann. III. 246 Mrs. Cloff was for cutting a dash,
giving large dinner-parties. 1887 Punch 12 Mar. 125/1 My wife and girls
will wish to cut a dash.

mill, noun1, 8a 1825 C. M. WESTMACOTT Eng. Spy I. 270 To cut a dash at
races or a mill.



George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

"We have seen the best of our time.  Machinations, hollowness,
treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our
graves."  King Lear, Act 1, scene 2 (Gloucester speaking).