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

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:27 PM -0400 5/17/05, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>Hmmm, don't know why I didn't think to check the OED first...
>
>-----
>_once_, adv., conj., a., and n.
>
>16. Proverb. _once a --, always a --_ and variants, indicating that a
>particular role cannot be or is unlikely to be relinquished.
>
>[1566 W. P. tr. C. S. Curio Pasquine in Traunce f. 107v, The olde rule: he
>that is once a false knaue, it is maruell if euer he be honest man after.]
>1613 H. PARROT Laquei Ridiculosi II. cxxi sig. N2v, Well you may change
>your name, But once a Whoore, you should be still the same. 1622 J. MABBE
>tr. M. Aleman Guzman d'Alf. I. I. II. i. 7 Once a knaue, and euer a
>knaue:..

this really is the primus inter pares here, I'd say (even with the
extraneous "and", which also shows up through the next century or
so); the earlier ones involve the same idea, but not the same
proverbial construction per se

L

(with apologies to Jesse for the inadvertent Rodneyizing)

>For he that hath once beene naught, is presumed to bee so still.
>1696 Cornish Comedy IV. i. 30 ‘I'll do so no more.’ ‘Not till next time;
>once a Villain, and always so.’ 1705 P. A. MOTTEUX Amorous Miser III. 58
>Once a Captain and always a Captain. 1760 W. KENRICK Falstaff's Wedding
>IV. i. 52 As to the matter of knighthood; once a knight and always a
>knight, you know. [etc.]
>-----
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer