lipstick on a pig

[Benjamin Zimmer]

There's a kerfuffle over Obama saying "You can put lipstick on a pig
-- it's still a pig," which the McCain campaign is claiming refers to
Sarah "pitbull with lipstick" Palin. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen
Psaki is quoted as saying, "That expression is older than my
grandfather's grandfather and it means that you can dress something up
but it doesn't change what it is."

How old is the expression, really? A quick database check doesn't turn
up anything before 1985:

---
Washington Post,  Nov. 15, 1985, p. C1 (Nexis)
KNBR, the AM radio station carrying Giants baseball games, had raised
$20,000 toward the construction of a new downtown stadium. The board
of supervisors, reluctant to commit to such a project, asked if they
couldn't use the money to renovate Candlestick Park. "That," replied
KNBR personality Ron Lyons, "would be like putting lipstick on a pig."
---

There are earlier cites for "putting lipstick on a corpse," but that's
a bit different.

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http://www.osmre.gov/legishistory/publication92-10.htm
COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE
92nd CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION
DECEMBER 1971 SERIAL-NO: Serial No. 92-10
MEMORANDUM OF THE CHAIRMAN
"Like putting lipstick on a corp[o]se," is how current strip-mine
reclamation efforts were described to me on a recent trip to West
Virginia.
---

--Ben Zimmer

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