"can of corn"

Fri Aug 22 12:58:51 UTC 2014

Yes, 1932 is well within the bounds of ordinary usage.

Sometimes the height of the pop-up and sometimes the ease of the catch
appear to be emphasized, but it amounts to the same thing.

If the height of the ball and its vertical descent are salient, the
grocery-store etymology may well be correct, if somewhat arcane.

I heard a classmate use the more general sense ("easy task") once, about
1974. That wasn't enough to get it into HDAS. Moreover, he was clearly
using it metaphorically:

Me: "This should be easy."

He: "Can of corn?"

Me: "Huh?"

He: "You know. When a fielder catches a pop-up, it's a 'can of corn.'"

Me: "Oh."

So language grows. He's a particle physicist now.

JL

On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 8:19 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- 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: "can of corn"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It appears that Paul Dickson removed the 1896 citation for "can of
> corn" from his reference work in the recent revised edition printed in
> 2011.
>
> The 1896 citation for "Frank Merriwell's Schooldays" by Burt L.
> Standish is present in "The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary". This
> edition was released in 1999 by Harcourt Brace & Company of New York.
>
> The 1896 citation is absent from "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary,
> Third Edition, The Revised, Expanded, and Now-Definitive Work on the
> Language of Baseball" printed in 2011 from W.W. Norton & Company of
> New York. The publication notes list three copyrights in 1988, 1999,
> and 2009. The publication notes list "The New Dickson Baseball
> Dictionary" as a previous edition.
>
> It is possible that Paul Dickson determined that the 1896 citation was
> faulty and deliberately removed it. I have been unable to find "can of
> corn" in the 1901 edition of "Frank Merriwell's School Days" by Burt
> L. Standish (pseudonym). I haven't examined the 1896 edition. JL noted
> the problem of modernized editions.
>
> The 2011 edition of Dickson's reference gives a 1930 citation for "can
> of corn" with a baseball player catching a "torrid drive". I gave the
> details for this LA Times cite in a previous message.
>
> Here is a 1932 citation that is closer to the common modern meaning.
> The newspaper article discussed a young baseball lexicographer who was
> collecting colorful words and phrases used in game. A sampling from
> the embryonic dictionary was reprinted:
>
> Date: November 30, 1932
> Newspaper: Greensboro Daily News
> Newspaper Location: Greensboro, North Carolina
> Title: Young First Sacker of Chicago Club Collects Unusual Diamond
> Expressions
> Quote Page: 4, Column: 5
> Database: GenealogyBank
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Banana stalk - a bat with poor wood in it.
> Can of corn - a high, lazy fly ball.
> Rubber bat - bat used by player who gets a lot of fluke hits.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 8:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "can of corn"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Re: "Burt L. Standish"
> >
> > I found a recent paperback copy of a Standish-Merriwell in a used
> bookstore
> > in the '70s.
> >
> > Wow! It had more antedatings than any book I'd ever seen! Of course it
> was
> > still set in the 1890s and had the original pub date on display.
> >
> > My naivete soon became clear. A 1960s reviser had updated  the '90s lingo
> > to make it more interesting and readable for today's youth.
> >
> > Turns out the whole series of "reprints" was like that.
> >
> > A few years ago, my wife found a recent reprint of a book she'd liked in
> > grade-school, one of the "Elsie Dinsmore" series by Martha Finley.
> >
> > Same title and everything. Same setting in the nostalgic past.
> >
> > You can imagine her horror when she found it to be completely modernized
> > and heavily Christianized too.
> >
> > The various newspaper DBs I can access all cite "can of corn" from the
> same
> > 1937 journalistic list of baseball slang. I haven't noticed anything
> > earlier.
> >
> > Those grocers' poles with the rubber-tipped clasp at the end were indeed
> > "neat" (as we used to say).
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 11:40 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: "can of corn"
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> On Aug 21, 2014, at 11:22 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> >>
> >> > Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
> >> >> See HDAS I, p. 358.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> I have heard it only in reference to baseball.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> Used by whom in 1896?
> >> >=20
> >> > HDAS has a 1937 citation. "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third
> >> > Edition)" lists a 1930 first use citation for "can of corn" in the Los
> >> > Angeles Times. Here is the metadata and an extended excerpt from
> >> > ProQuest. This instance does not really correspond to an easily caught
> >> > high fly ball:
> >> >=20
> >> > Newspaper: Los Angeles Times
> >> > Newspaper location: Los Angeles, California
> >> > Date: 1930 June 19
> >> > Title: Hill Shines as Hollywood Wins, 6 to 4: RUMLER'S POKE SETTLES =
> >> CLASH
> >> > Continuation title: Sheiks Thump Mission Reds
> >> > Author: Bob Ray
> >> > Start Page 11
> >> > Quote Page 13, Column 4 (continuation page number listed in article)
> >> > Database ProQuest
> >> >=20
> >> > [Begin except]
> >> > Ike Boone, the league's leading hitter, again went hitless, which
> >> > makes it a big seven for, oh,
> >>
> >> > as far as the present series is
> >> > concerned.
> >>
> >>
> >> wonder when "go 7 for 0" (in the game, or series) changed to "go 0 for =
> >> 7"
> >>
> >> > [=85]
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org