Now you see it, now you don't

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Thu Jan 3 02:41:27 UTC 2008


Here's a phrase strangely late to appear in OED:

        THIMBLE PLAYERS JUGGED. [refers to the "scientific game of "now you see it, now you don't"]
        New York Herald, November 9, 1841, p. 1, col. 3.

OED: 1967, as a "conjuror's phrase"

GAT

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

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