a case ???

[Benjamin Barrett]

Some possibilities that come to mind are "write off" (some sort of
nineteenth century accounting jargon essentially means "a loss"),
"case for the police" and "case for the in-house scam books" where the
pawn shop keeps a log of such incidents or people. Another is crazy (a
case for the looney bins?). A final possibility is that "case" is
jargon for a certain type of container that is associated with a loss,
such as a box full of stones that sinks.

Probably far-fetched speculation, in the hopes that something rings a
bell with someone.

HTH
Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

On Mar 14, 2008, at 6:42 PM, George Thompson wrote:

>
> I don't see a meaning for the word "case" in HDAS or Cassell's that
> fits this without some heavy wrenching and squeezing.  Here it is
> used to mean "a loss".
>
> This is from a novel published in 1836.  (The author was a prominent
> newspaper editor -- you've met him before.)  The scene is a
> pawnshop.  A young man enters: he's a regular, coming in to pawn the
> same gold watch and chain, redeeming it when he's flush.  This time
> he's in a hurry, says to the pawnbroker, give me the usual for
> this.  The pawnbroker hands him money, he rushes out.  The
> pawnbroker looks at the watch, sees that instead of a gold chain,
> this time the chain is gilded brass, rushes out after him.  He
> returns, saying:
>
> "Ah it's no use,: he said, "he's got off clear by this time, and my
> thirty dollars is a case."
>
> William Leete Stone, Ups and Downs in the Life of a Distressed
> Gentleman, 1836, p. 191
>
> GAT

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