"Match me, Sidney"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

"Match me, Sidney" is a classic line from _The Sweet Smell of Success_
(1957), delivered by J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) to Sidney Falco (Tony
Curtis). It was one of the American Film Institute's 400 nominees for the
greatest movie quotes of all time, but sadly it did not make the top 100.

I don't see "match" = 'light a cigarette for (someone)' in OED, HDAS, or
anywhere else. Was this a turn of phrase that the screenwriters (Clifford
Odets and Ernest Lehman) came up with specifically for the movie?


--Ben Zimmer