straw purchase(r)/buyer

[George Thompson]

> the expressions are almost surely related to "man of straw" and "straw
> man".  and compare this cite for "straw bail" in the OED:
>
> 1859  Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 455: worthless bail; bail given by
> 'man of straw', i.e. persons who pretend to the possession of
> property, but have none.
>

If 1859 is the best that the OED can do with "straw bail", here are a couple from the early 1840s.  It was a very frequent topic for complaint in the 1840s.

        [because of Judge Lynch, "rogues are rarely brought to trial, if they have money enough to obtain straw bail and a habeas"]
        New York Herald, December 19, 1841, p. 1, col. 5  [A NYC judge named Lynch; not a reference to lynching]

        [an English pickpocket named Edward Hammond, aka Simpson, arrested “some two years since;” he had been sentenced to 5 years, but the sentence was being appealed; he had been bailed; will one of “our higher Judges . . . again turn a villain loose on straw bail?”]
        New-York Daily Tribune, June 30, 1843, p. 2, col. 5

I actually have a note from earlier in 1841, but without context.  It was from the Tribune, and a search of that on Proquest might turn it up.  Also several other appearances from 1842 & 1843, from other papers, and also without context.  I will get full context, upon request.

GAT

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

----- Original Message -----
From: Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2009 11:44 am
Subject: straw purchase(r)/buyer
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> caught in the NYT on 3/20/09, in "Prosecutors Seek Appeal In Dismissal
> Of Gun Case", by James C. McKinley Jr. (p. A12):
>
> Federal agents say the smugglers, who have pleaded guilty to lesser
> charges, recruited at least seven people with clean records as straw
> purchasers to buy the guns on their behalf, paying them $100 a gun.
>
> ... Judge Gottsfield determined that even though the straw buyers had
> made false statements on federal forms claiming they were buying for
> themselves, they were legally eligible to buy the weapons, so the
> deception dd not amount to a "material falsification" under state law.
>
> He also asserted that federal gun laws require prosecutors to prove
> not just that someone lied to a gun dealer to obtain a weapon for
> someone else, but also that the person who ended up with the gun could
> not legally buy one.
>
> [the straw buyers were acting on behalf of a gun dealer, George
> Iknadosian, of Glendale, Arizona, who was accused of arming a Mexican
> gun cartel.]
> .....
>
> there's a wikipedia page for "straw purchase", which cites the term as
> specific to U.S. federal firearms law (and there are lots of hits for
> "straw purchaser" in this context), while maintaining that in common
> usage it has been extended to other sorts of purchases, like buying
> liquor on behalf of someone under legal drinking age.  no examples are
> cited there, however. but grant barrett has a quotation for "straw
> buyer" here --
>    http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/citations/straw_buyer_1/
> with reference to a type of illegal land flip, and you can find
> occurrences of "straw purchaser" in this context.
>
> "straw purchase", "straw purchaser", and "straw buyer" are not in OED,
> NOAD2, or AHD4.
>
> the expressions are almost surely related to "man of straw" and "straw
> man".  and compare this cite for "straw bail" in the OED:
>
> 1859  Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 455: worthless bail; bail given by
> 'man of straw', i.e. persons who pretend to the possession of
> property, but have none.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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