equidating "to the nines" (1787-)

[Wilson Gray]

Thank you, Ben!

-Wilson

On 10/3/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: equidating "to the nines" (1787-)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

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