"craps game"

[Joel S. Berson]

I am probably as old as John Lahr ("several decades"), but I've
always known it as the "game of craps" -- that is, not only as the
"floating crap game" of Guys and Dolls.   Does going back 16 decades,
or appearing in the OED, make it more hyercorrect?

craps
A game of chance played with dice; to shoot craps: to play at this
game. Also Comb. (see CRAP n.4).
1843 J. H. GREENE Expos. Gambling 88 The game of craps..is a game
lately introduced into New Orleans, and is fully equal to faro in
its..ruinous effects. 1850 MAYNE REID Rifle Rangers I. i. 9 So I
stepped inter a shanty whar they wur a playin craps. 1888 St. Louis
Globe Democrat (Farmer), A party of colored deck hands were playing
craps. 1902 T. M. YOUNG Amer. Cotton Industry 103 The besetting
weakness of the negro is gambling, and his favourite game is 'craps'.
1903 N.Y. Sun 12 Nov. 1 Two young toughs came along and started to
shoot craps. ...

In case one thinks "if 'craps' tells me to 'see crap n.4', then
'crap' is the correct form", the OED calls "crap" a "var.
craps".  And with a smirk I suggest that, although the earliest
quotation for "crap" is co-equal to that for "craps", the one for
"crap" is clearly a case of a misplaced apostrophe:

crap n.4
  1. Var. CRAPS.
1843 J. H. GREENE Espos. Gambling 89 Ask many of the merchants, what
has resulted to them in consequence of their clerks being decoyed to
the crap's table. 1891 Amer. N. & Q. VIII. 41 There is a sort of
gambling game, called crap, or 'shooting crap', much played by
newsboys, bootblacks and negroes. ...

Joel

At 3/29/2009 08:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>I now see that Google Books has hundreds of exx. of "craps game" going back
>several decades, but that doesn't make it any less hypercorrect.
>
>I.e., ridiculous.
>
>JL
>
>On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 8:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter
><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      hypercorrect pluralization of attributives
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > The first of these I noticed was "the jobs market," sometime around 2002.
> >
> > This week's New Yorker contains a review of "Guys & Dolls" in the course of
> > which (easily old enough to know better) writes not only "craps
> > game" but also "floating craps game."
> >
> > Copy editing gone berserk, sez I.
> >
> > JL
> >
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> >
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