antedating?: "top dollar"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has 1970, but Google Books cites an issue of _Trucking Business_ from no later than 1964:

"With all that work you put in... Why aren't you drawing top dollar?"

Google Books asserts that the latest issue they scanned is from that year. I also recall the phrase "why pay top dollar?" from the (mid?) 1960s.

OED correctly defines "top dollar" as "a high price," but it literally means "the highest price or remuneration."

JL




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