lox (smoked salmon) from 1668??

[Joel S. Berson]

A disappointment.  Clearly not a fresh lax, though--my mother told me
that when fish had no odor, it was fresh.

But looking in OED2 a little further, there is the same quote under
"lox" (not n.1 or n.2, just plain, no schmear*):

" ? obs. pl. of lock n.1 (see sense 2 note).
    1668 Clevelands Old Gill ii. in J.C. Revived (ed. 4) 32 Her
Breath smells like Lox."

The sense 2 note is:

"In pl. used by wool-dealers for: The lowest class of remnants after
the removal of the fleece, consisting of the shortest wool, coming
from the legs and belly of the sheep."

So not a fishy odor, but ovine?  Or should this quotation be moved to
"lax n.1"?

* Not in OED2, and I am not corrupting ADS-L (OED2 has only shmear
var. schmeer = bribery).

Joel

At 8/4/2006 07:49 PM, you wrote:
>>"1668 Cleveland's Old Gill ii, Her Breath smells like Lox, Or unwiped Nocks."
>>
>>Is this lox n.2, a kind of smoked salmon, first citation 1941??
>
>Probably not exactly. But I think it might could be lax n.1, basically the
>same word, first citation some time before the Deluge. There is an example
>in SND from 1819 spelled with an "o".
>
>-- Doug Wilson
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