markers (IOUs)

[George Thompson]

Surprisingly, HDAS doesn't have an entry for marker, simply, in this sense, familiar from the works of Damon Runyon.  It does have the expression "call in (one's) marker", from 1983+

Cassell's has it from 1930+.

The OED has:    1887 F. FRANCIS Saddle & Mocassin xii. 225 Before half the deal was over, the whole bank of checks was gone, and Cuff was giving markers for hundreds as hard as he could go it. 1931 D. RUNYON Guys & Dolls (1932) vii. 147 Now I am going to pay my landlady, and take up a few markers here and there, and feed myself up good.

I can beat this, by several years
        I am going to put a marker in for this meal.    The World, September 15, 1883, p. 5, col. 1

As a Runyon character would say, when touting a horse, "a story goes with it":  A day or so earlier, the World had reported that a certain NYC gambler had won big at a faro bank in Boston.  The gambler, back in NYC, had run into a World reporter in a restaurant.  He said, thanks a lot for telling everyone about my score in Boston.  Every bum in New York has been hustling me for a handout.  My story now is that I am broke again, and I'm sticking to it.  In fact, "I am going to put a marker in for this meal."

(Note to Jonathan (the "A" man) of HDAS and Jonathon (the "O" man) of Cassell's: the summary of the gambler's complaint to the reproter is not a direct quotation.)

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org