"cut the muster" (1912)

[Wilson Gray]

"E'en cut the muster's throat ..."

GB 1858

Close. No cigar?
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain


On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 8:32 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â "cut the muster" (1912)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A popular explanation for the idiom "cut the mustard" is that it derives
> from "cut the muster" (related somehow to "pass muster"). The problem is
> that the "muster" variant doesn't show up often, and not at all in the late
> 19th century when the "mustard" variant begins to appear. OED3 dates "cut
> the mustard" from 1891, with a cite from the _Galveston (Texas) Daily News_.
> (There are also a number of cites from 1891 in the _Omaha (Neb.) Morning
> World-Herald_.) The earliest "cut the muster" I've found is from 1912:
>
> 1912 _The Illio_ (Univ. of Illinois) 527 C.A.A. track team can't cut the
> muster. Beaten four points.
> http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015068546251;seq=559;page=search;num=527;view=image
>
> Anything earlier out there?
>
> --bgz
>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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