Cigar Sayings

[sagehen]

>1. Close, But No Cigar
>
>Is anyone able to supply earlier citations for "close but no cigar" than
>the 1935 example (from the movie "Annie Oakley") given by HDAS?
>
>Can anyone refer me to any dictionaries, books, articles, or websites that
>have any kind of discussion of the derivation of this expression?
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
Cf. "A miss is as good as a mile!"
AM

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