card sharp (1874), card shark (1884)

[Barnhart]

In Tom Clark's Dictionary of Gambling and Gaming, there is an entry for
card sharping (1870, OED) and one for cardsharper (1850, also OED).

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Tuesday, September
06, 2005 at 3:08 AM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
>Subject:      card sharp (1874), card shark (1884)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>If I read the archives correctly, "card sharp" has been dated to 1888 and
>"card shark" to 1891 (both cites found by Douglas Wilson in Feb. 2003).
>Newspaperarchive turns up these antedatings:
>
>
>1874 _Oakland Evening Tribune_ 28 Aug. 2/2 Almost daily, passengers on the
>overland route are robbed by "card sharps."
>
>1884 _Perry Pilot_ (Iowa) 2 Apr. 8/3 Perhaps it is that the most
>picturesque and attractive men to be found in New York streets, are bunko
>men, card sharks, adventurers and dissipated club men, who live without
>visible means of
>support.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer