Old Chip or Brother Chip

[Wilson Gray]

On 12/1/05, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Old Chip or Brother Chip
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The OED has for these expressions:
> 6. a. fig. Something forming a portion of, or derived from, a larger
> or more important thing, of which it retains the characteristic
> qualities. Usually applied to persons.   [1658 OSBORN Adv. Son (1673)
> 221 As most of the small Princes beyond the Alps, are themselves, or
> their wives, chips of the Cross.] 1815 Scribbleomania 2, I rank with
> the Nine a true chip of Apollo. 1822 W. IRVING Braceb. Hall xiii. 116
> A dry chip of the University. 1873 Slang Dict. s.v. Chip, Brother
> chip, one of the same trade or profession. Originally brother
> carpenter, now general.
>
> I can't beat the bracketed quote, but I have the following.  All 5
> that contain the term "brother chip" antedate the OED's quotation from
> 1873:
>
>         Whereas Abraham Fincher, an old Chip, has taken upon himself,
> at his house in Beaver-Lane, near the Bowling-Green, to sell most
> Sorts of Strong Liquors by retail, he finding himself incapable of
> performing a Day's Work, and therefore gives Notice, that those who
> have a Mind to spend their Penny with him shall meet with good
> Entertainment.  New-York Evening Post, July 24, 1749, p. 3, col. 2
>
>         An industrious mechanic . . . was robbed . . . , but by whom,
> no one could tell.  Suspicion, however, was lately fixed upon a
> brother chip. . . .  N-Y E Post, September 25, 1823, p. 2, col. 2
>
>         [a letter referring to "a scurrilous little print"]  . . . the
> Editor whereof is a brother chip of mine, having been brought up to
> the profession of a Baker. . . .  **  I do hereby request [him] to
> meet me any time he may think proper, at Mr. John Notter's bake oven,
> armed with his own peel or swob, or any other instrument belonging to
> our trade. . . .        N-Y National Advocate, August 3, 1825, p. 2,
> col. 4, from Juniata Gazette
>
>         [A newspaper editor is sued.]  . . . the manuscript was . . .
> sent to the printer's as a legal advertisement.  ***  Alas, for our
> brother chip!  Commercial Advertiser, August 31, 1827, p. 2, col. 3
>
>         Is there any Editor in this city who is well off, and has no
> little-uns of his own, and who would help a brother chip by taking two
> or three of the little batch off his hands?     Evening Star, December
> 6, 1833, p. 2, col. 3  [The editor of an out-of-town paper has become
> father of quadruplets.]
>
>         A compositor employed on the Broadway Belle . . . meeting a
> brother chip in Broadway. . . .  Broadway Belle, October 15, 1855, p.
> 4, col. 3
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>


"Brother chip" or "old chip" in the sense that both are chips pff the same
old block, perhaps?
--
-Wilson Gray