Gentlemen of the Pivot

[Dan Goncharoff]

Couldn't Gentlemen of the Pivot be pawnbrokers, or policemen? Both are
likely to come into contact with stolen goods.

DanG


On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 1:24 PM, David Daniel <david at coarsecourses.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Daniel <david at COARSECOURSES.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Gentlemen of the Pivot
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Gentlemen of the Pivot are watchmakers? Bizarre, not a single hit on
> Google.
> DAD
>
>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Gentlemen of the Pivot
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
> Here is a circumlocution for "watchmaker", from 1771:
>
>             LENT by, or stolen from Isaac Heron, Watch-maker, about two
> Months ago, a Silver-cased Watch, with Silver Face, nam'd H. Clay, London,
> 3630.  If lent, -- 'twas not forever; and if stolen, -- may the Thief be
> detected! or, Compunction rend his guilty Heart, 'till he restore it.
>
>             The Gentlemen of the Pivot, in whose way it may come, are
> requested to have an Eye to the above Name and Number.  The Person who
> takes it up, or gives Intelligence of it, shall be gratefully rewarded
> by  Isaac
> Heron.
>
>             New-York Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury, August 19, 1771,
> supplement, p. 1, col. 2
> I've not encountered this elsewhere, and it seems not in the OED.
>
> GAT
>
> --
> 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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