Antedatings of "umpteen"

[Hugo]

"umpteen", also "umteen" (OED: adj. 1918, n. 1919)

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New Zealand
"LOAFER IN THE STREET.", Press, Volume XXX, Issue 4098, 14 September 1878, Page 5:

[Begin]
 This must be good news for the Jap. paper men, for assuming they are like you and me, and never trot round with a credit balance of more than about umteen pence, they can sling the ink of libel and wield the pen of sarcasm with a sweet freedom to which they have been hitherto strangers.
[End]

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP18780914.2.30&srpos=1&e=-------10--1-byDA---0umteen--

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Australia
The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW : 1894 - 1939), Thursday 1 March 1894:

[Begin]
But complainant said to her he had
already given her the pound. She said, ' No, that's
the pound you gave me ; I know it by the number.'
Complainant said ' What is the number ?' and
Miss Leggett replied ' umpteen 7.' Complainant
said ' That won't do, you know you put the pound
I gave you in your pocket.'
[End]

[Begin]
… complainant said, ' Do you know the
number of the note,' and she replied, ' Yes, I do ;
the number is 1700 and umpteen ; she thought
complainant was having a lark ; she saw complain-
ant several times afterwards about the note, and
he said to her,, 'I have nothing to do
with it once I put it in your hands.'
[End]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/124727255?searchTerm=umpteen&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc#pstart12437694

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New Zealand
"SPORTING.", Otago Witness , Issue 2332, 10 November 1898, Page 34:

[Begin]
He is probably by a No. 43 horse out of a No. 2 mare, or something of that sort, and most likely combines in his person the blood of "umpteen" running families and any number of sire strains.
[End]

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=OW18981110.2.108&srpos=4&e=-------10--1-byDA---0umpteen--

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Some other early uses from Australia:

1911: "almost umpteen years"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57724476?searchTerm=umpteen&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

1912: "the sum of umpteen thousands fourteen shillings and a pass-out check"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57727341?searchTerm=umpteen&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc#pstart4351410

1913: "It is umpteen years and asterisk months since …"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57728468?searchTerm=umpteen&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

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Hugo

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