equidating "to the nines" (1787-)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/3/07, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> So, which is earlier, e.g. "card sharper" or "card sharp"? And where
> does "card shark fit in?

I believe "card sharper" and "card sharp" are roughly contemporaneous.
OED has "card sharper" from 1859, and Mark Liberman found "card sharp"
from 1858:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003448.html
(Language Log: "Sharps, sharks and gentlemen")

"Card shark" is a bit later -- I posted a cite from 1884 here two years ago:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509a&L=ads-l&P=18683

(Wilson, at the time you wrote: "In my childhood, at the tail-end of
the great era of the horse opera, I could never be sure whether I was
hearing 'card sharp' or 'card shark.' It's a relief to know that I
really was hearing both.")


--Ben Zimmer

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