dollar-a-year men

[Baker, John]

        Well, I'm 45, and I suspect I may be at the lower end of the age
range of those to whom the term is immediately meaningful.  I'm not sure
when the last dollar-a-year man or woman served, but my recollection is
that Vice President Rockefeller was paid a full salary, which he never
bothered to collect.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Arnold M. Zwicky
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 10:59 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: dollar-a-year men

On Jul 11, 2005, at 6:25 AM, John Baker wrote:

>         I believe that "dollar-a-year men" refers to the former
> practice of wealthy individuals serving in government posts for the
> nominal annual salary of $1.
>
> Arnold M. Zwicky:
>
> no, i'm not offering this as a novel expression, or tryting to
> antedate it.  just an observation that it might not be understood by
> today's readers.  here's George Packer in The New Yorker, 7/4/05, p.
> 52:...

sorry.  i should have added that i was not asking for a definition; i'm
old enough to remember dollar-a-year men (by the way, weren't there
*any* dollar-a-year women?).  what i was wondering about was what those
of a less advanced age might make of the expression.

arnold