Antedating of "Free Lunch"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/21/2013 08:59 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>You have to have "free lunch" before you can have "no free lunch,"

Why?  The period was ruthless financially, so I would expect that
no-one was offering a free lunch until someone decided it would be a lure.

Joel

>so I would say yes, it is useful, at least in concept.  However, the
>antedating seems a bit questionable to me.  It strikes me as just a
>transparent collocation, rather than the later established usage of
>a bar that offers "free lunch" in order to sell drinks.
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>Behalf Of Dan Goncharoff
>Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 5:11 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Antedating of "Free Lunch"
>
>Is this useful? I would be looking for "no free lunch".
>DanG
>
>
>On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 5:07 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Antedating of "Free Lunch"
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > free lunch (OED 1848)
> >
> > 1847 _Louisville Morning Courier_ 29 July 3 (ProQuest Historical
> > Newspapers=
> > )  Messrs. O'MARA & GORDON open their "Washington Exchange," formerly
> > the W= ashington Hall, to-day, with a free lunch.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
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