shellacking

[Dan Goncharoff]

"Punch-drunk" also connects the two senses, and goes back at least as far.
DanG

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 12:59 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      shellacking
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Obama's reference to the Democrats' electoral "shellacking" is the
> inspiration for my latest Word Routes column:
>
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2479/
>
> I've found the "beating" sense going back to 1924, in boxing circles.
> Antedatings welcome, as always.
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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