Antedating of Flea Market

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 7:32 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> Quoting Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>:
>
> > OED and MW11 both have 1922.
> >
> > N'archive has _Janesville(WI) Gazette_  4 November 1891 p, 3/4
> >
> >  "Near the Barriere de Montreuil, in Paris, they have sales of odds
> > and ends known as the "flea market."  A woman recently bought a
> > dilapidated old mattress and, cutting it open, found 14,000 francs in
> > gold."
>
> Interesting. The same item appears (via Gale) in Daily Evening Bulletin, (San
> Francisco, CA) Monday, August 17, 1891; pg. 4; Issue 112; col C. Encept
> it does not have the "in Paris" gloss. So there may be an earlier source in French?

Possibly a calque of "marché aux puces"? I always assumed the
borrowing went in the other direction.


--Ben Zimmer

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