Bouncer (1865)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 5 Jun 2005 07:21:19 EDT, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>Anyone have a better "bouncer"? Newspaperarchive is not working right
>now, for me at least.
>...
>(OED)
>bouncer
>   5. One  engaged to eject undesirable or unruly persons from a saloon,
>ballroom, etc.; a  'chucker-out'. colloq. (orig.  U.S.).
>
>1865 Nat. Police Gaz. (U.S.) 29 Apr. 4/2 Old Moyamensing is almost as
>famous for its lawless gangs of boys and young men, as it was in the
>days of the 'killers' and 'bouncers.'

This cite should probably be bracketed, since it refers to the names of
gangs in antebellum Philadelphia (Moyamensing was a notoriously rough
district).  Here are a few earlier cites:

-----
_National Police Gazette_, Aug. 8, 1846, p. 405, col. 1 (APS)
PHILADELPHIA RIOTS. -- The three gangs of rowdies in Philadelphia, called
"The Killers," "The Bouncers," and "The Rats," keep that city in constant
turmoil, and they or other gangs ever will, until the police of the whole
county is placed under one general head by the Legislature.
-----
_Tioga Eagle_ (Wellsboro, Pa.), Nov. 24, 1847, p. 1, col. 5-6 (NPA)
"From Philadelphia" ... Some time ago there were in the District of
Southwark, a notorious gang of rowdies, who prided themselves in being
called "Killers." When the requisition was made upon this State, for
volunteers to go to Mexico, the leader of this gang, and a number of
kindred spirits, enlisted for the campaign. In consequence the
organization was broken up. Upon the ruins of the "Killers," how ever, two
more clubs have sprung into existence, called the "Bouncers" and the
"Skinners" who bid fair to emulate the deeds of their glorious
predecessors. On Friday evening last, the "Bouncers" and "Skinners" came
in contact, at the corner of Fourth and Catherine streets.
-----
_Saturday Evening Post_ (Philadelphia), Oct. 6, 1849, p. 2, col. 4 (APS)
These measures will of course be strenuously opposed by the would-be great
men who figure at the head of the present city and district corporations,
by the rowdy portion of the firemen, and by the "Killers," "Bouncers,"
&c., and their friends.
-----

It's possible that the Philadelphia "Bouncers" were the source for the
later sense of "bouncer", but I haven't seen any evidence for that.


--Ben Zimmer