"paper-pusher"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Joanne. The sense "passer of counterfeit money" is extremely rare ("paperhanger" is better known).

By sheer coincidence, a friend of mine yesterday observed that "All that paper-pushing is gettin' the best of me." (He meant paperwork, of course.)

JL

"Joanne M. Despres" <jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joanne M. Despres"
Subject: Re: "paper-pusher"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are a couple; in the second cite, the term seems to mean
something similar to "pencil pusher."

PAPERHANGER. A professional who passes forged checks.
Also _kid-glove worker_, _passer_, _paper-pusher_, _pusher_,
_shover_, the last three terms being reserved for men who pass
counterfeit money.

by D.W. Maurer
Univ. of Louisville
American Speech
December, 1941
page 248


In twenty minutes McCollum had drawn out the facts of Bert's
epxerience in and out of school, and had determined to his own
satisfaction that Bert would never be any good as a lawyer or in
fact as any kind of a _paper-pusher_; . . .

Walter V. Bingham
Infantry Journal
October, 1942
Page 25

On 18 Jun 2005, at 17:16, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Can anyone find a pre-1944 ex. "paper-pusher" and/or "paper-pushing"?
>
> JL
>

Joanne Despres
Merriam-Webster


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Mail
 Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour