"Once a Dodger, Always a Dodger" (1934)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 17 May 2005 13:19:35 -0400, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>There are 886K google hits for "once a" "always a", featuring on the
>first couple of pages no Dodgers or phonemes, but a motley collection
>of marines, cheaters, friends, Caesarean (which come to think of it
>I've read about), deserters, tuba players, and such.  Plus another
>32.4K for "once an" "always an", featuring Arabs, Indians, English
>majors, orphans, and addicts.  Some of these (marines, Caesareans,
>addicts) are no doubt proverbial, others are formed productively as
>needed.  Anyone want to tackle the issue of first cite for the
>construction type?

It goes back to the 1840s at least.  From Making of America:

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"Harry Bluff on the Right Search"
_Southern Literary Messenger_ Apr 1842, p. 298
'Once a subject always a subject,' is British ethics; and the right to
impress British seamen wherever found, is British municipal law.
http://tinyurl.com/e43tm
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"Sam Slick in England: Change for American Notes"
_North American review_ Jan 1844, p. 224
In England such a change we suppose is impossible. There, once a
clergyman, always a clergyman.
http://tinyurl.com/dlkc6
-----

I suspect both the the "subject" and "clergyman" versions go back much
earlier than this.

Dickens used the formation twice in platitudinous style (with "captain"
and "gentleman"):

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_Bleak House_ (1851-53)
You advertised that Mr. Hawdon (Captain Hawdon, if you hold to the saying
‘Once a captain, always a captain’) was to hear of something to his
advantage.
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54bh/chap21.html
-----
_Little Dorrit_ (1855-57)
‘Haha!’ boasted Rigaud. ‘Once a gentleman, and always a gentleman.
A gentleman from the beginning, and a gentleman to the end. What the
Devil! A gentleman must be waited on, I hope? It’s a part of my character
to be waited on!’
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54ld/chap64.html
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--Ben Zimmer