c-note (UNCLASSIFIED)

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Wed Jun 19 15:02:52 UTC 2013


Mind you, using roman numerals for currency has a long history, documented
in part by HDAS; also Dictionary of American English.

>From my notes:

     [a man visits a whore.]  In the morning finding that he was minus a
watch and a *X*. . . .
The Herald, April 28, 1836, p. 2, col. 2



1837:     V’s, *X*’s, L’s, and C’s of the Dry Dock Bank
The Herald, May 9, 1837, p. 2, col. 3



1840:     When they can raise a cool *X*. they drive as far as Bradshaw’s,
and dine.  When they can only circumvent a V., they stop at the Red House,
or at the Widow’s.  ***  One of the Crowd will raise a XX. . . .

Morning Herald, February 7, 1840, p. 2, cols. 2-3

 HDAS: C= 1839, L= 1839


On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) <
william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:

> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> _Springfield Republican_ 8/2/1929 p 29 col 1 (story by Damon Runyon)
>
> "My  operatives inform me that a commission has been receive in this
> town from Mr. Al Well, matchmaker of the Queensboro arena, in New York,
> who is betting $100 against
> $266, and taking Canzoneri for his.  Moreover, Mr. Well, more familiarly
> known as Weskit, has laid his "C" note right on the old line."
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
> > Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 8:13 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: c-note
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ---------------
> > --------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: c-note
> >
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> >  Benjamin Barrett wrote:
> > >
> > > In Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/c-note) and in a
> > citation
> > > = in the OED under "benji," but no entry in the OED.=20
> > >
> > > -----
> > > =
> > > http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/javale-mcgee-100-
> > homel
> > > ess-= man-video-sleeping-street-161840470.html
> > >
> > > On one hand, I think it's cool that JaVale's response to coming
> > across
> > > = someone who could surely use a C-note more than he could is to
> peel
> > > one = off.
> >
> > JL's Historical Dictionary of American Slang has an entry for "C note"
> > with a cite in 1930. Below is evidence for a cite in 1929. I think the
> > OED has been incorporating some material from HDAS over time.
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> >
> > C-note n. [C + NOTE] Gamb. a one-hundred-dollar bill.
> >
> > 1930 Liberty (Oct. 11) 30: We gave him five C notes and two tens.
> >
> > 1954 Schulberg Waterfront 8. He was always good for fifties and
> C-notes
> > peeled off the fat roll.
> >
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > I think there is an instance of "C note" in 1929 in a Damon Runyon
> > short story. Runyon used the term repeatedly in his tales. The excerpt
> > below is from a short story in a collection at Project Gutenberg
> > Australia. The bibliographic data is from an entry in Oxford
> Dictionary
> > of Humorous Quotations This story is part of a group that inspired the
> > Frank Loesser musical "Guys and Dolls".
> >
> > 1929 August, Cosmopolitan,
> > "A Very Honorable Guy" by Damon Runyon
> >
> > http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks11/1100651h.html
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > 'There is the big trouble,' Feet says. 'I owe The Brain a C note
> > already, and I am supposed to pay him back by four o'clock Monday
> > morning, and where I am going to get a hundred dollars I do not know,
> > to say nothing of the other ten I must give him for interest.'
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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