Query: 1910 "squeeze my bit"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Jim beat me to it.The phrase seems to mean, "don't try to be stingy with my salary." "Bit" usually means "share of loot," but it could serve "poetically" for "money."

  JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: Query: 1910 "squeeze my bit"
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On 2/23/06, Landau, James wrote:
> I would guess that "don't try to squeeze my bit" means "don't try to be
> cheap and pay me less than I'm worth"
>
> I also suspect this is a nonce expression, invented by the
> scansion-challenged poet to rhyme with "hit".
>
> Did the term "squeeze" for a bunt exist in 1910?

Dickson has "squeeze play" from 1905 and the verb "squeeze" from 1907.


--Ben

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