Antedating of "Free Lunch"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Well, if the lunch is free only with a paid-for drink, you can overcharge
the suckers for the drink and give 'em a free lunch.

Of which there is then no such thing.

(You don't believe stuff that's "free" is really "free" do you? Not even
freedom is free. Or dumb, either as I once mentioned.)

JL

On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 9:04 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Free Lunch"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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