"Piker"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/4/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> But the more the merrier. Would still like additional pre-1900 "piker"s.  And, while
> we're at it, pre-1900 to "pike," meaning to bet in a small way.

You probably have these already, but MoA has a couple of cites from the 1870s:

1871 _Galaxy_ 12(1) July 68 Gamblers have a saying as caustic and more
true, that a "Stormer is sure to be a piker." ... A piker is a
tolerated collapse who makes a stray bet when he can beg or borrow a
"check."
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fgala%2Fgala0012%2F&tif=00067.TIF
Reprinted in book form: 1872 Edward Crapsey _The nether side of New York_ 98.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;g=moagrp;idno=1134689.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000104

1873 "John Morris" (pseud. Of John O'Connor) _Wanderings of a
vagabond_ 361 Nothing is more annoying to young bank players, or will
gall them worse or more quickly, than to be called "pikers," or
"crabbers," or "check-sweaters" -- words almost synonymous, and
meaning a person who bets one or two white checks at a time.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;g=moagrp;idno=abk1463.0001.001;view=image;seq=363


--Ben Zimmer