dollar-a-year men

[Joanne M. Despres]

Oops, sorry I forgot to mention that.  I'm 46.

Joanne

On 11 Jul 2005, at 11:50, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> So we can set bounds.  John Baker wrote he's 45, and knew the term; how old
> are you, Joanne?
>
> Joel
>
> At 7/11/2005 11:28 AM, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       "Joanne M. Despres" <jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: dollar-a-year men
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Funny you should mention it.  A few weeks ago I encountered the
> >word while reading Dos Passos' _1919_ and had no idea what it
> >meant.  It was obvious that one dollar wasn't much "jack" in 1919,
> >though, and that the men referred to were educated and well-off, so
> >eventually I sort of figured out that it meant an upper-class WWI
> >volunteer.  It came across in context as a lower-class slang (of
> >which there's a fair amount in the book).
> >
> >If I'd seen the word out of context, though, it would have made no
> >sense at all!
> >
> >Joanne
> >
> >On 11 Jul 2005, at 7:59, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> >
> > > 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