franchise

[Dan Goncharoff]

I think the archives at variety.com will show numerous uses of
"franchise" to mean a unifying comcept before 1988. Unfortunately, a
subscription is required for more than snippets, but the snippets are
usually generous enough to establish context.

DanG

On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 8:52 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      franchise
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OED offers a good def. of the now-ubiquitous "franchise":  "orig. *U.S.* A
> general title, format, or unifying concept used for creating or marketing a
> series of products (esp. films, television shows, etc.)."
>
> Its primary ex. is from the _N.Y. Times_ in 1936.  However, there follows a
> half-century gap and in 1988 the same NYT had to define the word for its
> readers.
>
> 1936 says, "Warner Brothers hold their G-Man franchise with =91Public Enemy=
> 's
> Wife=92 at the Strand."
>
> The uniquely early date, plus the tenor of "hold" (presumably "maintain")
> suggests to finicky me that the writer was simply playing facetiously off
> the established sense of an official authorization to trade in something,
>
> So I'd put the ex. in brackets - unless OED has a bunch of suppressed cites
> showing continuity of usage between 1936 and 1986.
>
> I thought to look the word up because the newer meaning has never made much
> logical sense to me. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
>
>
> JL
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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