"There's a sucker born every minute" (1883)

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon May 30 02:12:35 UTC 2005


This may be of no interest or use, but WTH? CH. MH. The first time
that I ran across this saying, it was in the form, "There's one born
every minute." It was embedded in a context which made it clear that
"one" referred to "a sucker."

-Wilson Gray

On 5/29/05, bapopik at aol.com <bapopik at aol.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject:      "There's a sucker born every minute" (1883)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/article/946/theres-a-sucker-born-every-minute-ny-gambler-slang-but-not-p-t-barnum
> ...
> ...
> Anyone have anything? I now have THREE 1883 "sucker" cites. Also, try "fool" and "second" and "minute" and "day."
> ...
> The Cardiff Giant "Hannum" reputed origin doesn't check out with a single citation.
> ...
> Also, Chicago's Michael Cassius McDonald doesn't seem to check out iwth a single citation, either.
>


--
-Wilson Gray



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