Antedating of "Persnickety"

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 4, 2013, at 11:40 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 8:12 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>> stepped out a band-box....'"
>
> "Stepped out _of_ a bandbox" was still everyday, when I was a kid in
> Saint Louis and was used as the slogan of the local "Band-Box" chain
> of cleaners.  I had o idea that the phrase was so old. One of these
> days, I'm going to bother to find out what a _band-box_ is. Some
> things you just don't get around to.
>
My question is whether a band-box is bigger or smaller than a bread-box.  I guess if you stepped out of one it must be bigger, unless you're very small.

LH

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