"fork *up*" (July 1837), and other slang

[Victor Steinbok]

How different is the use here from "pony up"? (OED. v. 1824)

Oh, and that might be pushed back to 1819.

http://bit.ly/baxffC

Robin Hamilton should certainly get a kick out of this piece. (A side
note--searching for "take a joke" does not find this piece)

     VS-)

On 2/28/2010 10:58 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 2/28/2010 10:21 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>
> "post the poney" -- OED 1819 [not 17898], s.v.
>>> post, v.4:  J. H. VAUX New Vocab. Flash Lang. in
>>> Mem., Post or post the poney, to stake, or lay
>>> down the money.  [No other quotations.]
>>>
>> I wouldn't put this past being something made up by the execrable Vaux.
>> Sounds like a variant of "pony up", meaning to hand over money or pay a debt
>> or reckoning.
>>
> I forgot to look for "post the pony" without the "e".  The OED has --
> s.v. nap, v.3 -- "1828 'W. T. MONCRIEFF' Tom&  Jerry I. 20 Blunt, my
> dear boy, is..to be able to flash the screens---sport the
> rhino---shew the needful---post the pony{em}nap the rent."
>
> So here, "sport" replaces "tip", and we have two additional phrases:
> ...
>

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