"on the IMprove"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/20/2009 11:25 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>Not seeing "on the improve" in any of the major dictionaries, but
>Google Books finds it in the 1978 first edition of _The Synonym
>Finder_ (Rodale, Urdang, LaRoche):
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=kjWZMyVa6jgC&pg=PA723
>
>It's listed under "on the mend," which it would seem to be modeled on.
>Citations show up back to 1819 at least:

And "improve" is not yet a noun in the OED.

Joel

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