to "spit-shine"

[Wilson Gray]

Surely, this is way older in print than 1967! Or even 1958!

Look Out Below!: A Story of the Airborne by a Paratrooper Padre - Page 210
by Francis L. Sampson - _1958_ - 234 pages

Saint Michael seems to be expecting them, for he himself is wearing
the famed "jump
boots" with a "_spit shine_". ...

IAC, it's possible to "spit"-shine footwear using only shoe polish,
one's fingertips, and a little plain water. There's no need to be so
gross as to use actual spittle.

-Wilson


On 3/2/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      to "spit-shine"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Amazingly not in OED, which lacks the noun as well:
>
>   1967 in Bill Frey _Letters from 'Nam_  (N.Y.: Warner Books, 1992) 23: You wouldn't recognize your spit-shined Paratrooper.
>
>   JL
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>  Get your own web address.
>  Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                                      -Sam'l Clemens

Dope wil get you through times of no money better than money will get
you through times of no dope.
-----
                                         -Free-Wheeling Franklin

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