"slot machine"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Whatever current usage of this term is like elsewhere, OED seems to miss something essential by defining a "slot machine" as simply "a machine which is operated by inserting a coin in a slot."

  We all know about gambling "slots," and my guess is that for 99% of the U.S. public,  that is the sole meaning of "slot machine" nowadays. The Wikipedia article doesn't even mention any other kind.

  My grandparents, however, routinely referred to vending machines (what I called "drink machines" and "food machines") as "slot machines."  Even in the late '50's, this usage seemed bizarre and, if my contemporaries were around, embarrassing. Perhaps manufacturers still employ the term in this general way.

  Here's an early U.S. ex. in a simile, though the reference could be to either kind of machine:

  1905 Owen Kildare _The Wisdom of the Simple_ (N.Y.: Fleming Revell) 29: You're talking like a slot machine, you are.

  JL


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