Antedating of "Billionaire"

[Fred Shapiro]

billionaire (OED 1861)

1844 _The Knickerbocker_ Mar. 288 (American Periodical Series)  A
'millionaire;' or, for that matter, a 'billionaire,' if we had him, would
not hesitate to take out of his mouth a moiety of his last 'chew' and give
it to an itinerant Lazarus.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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