[Ads-l] wild card

[Ben Zimmer]

I was following the OED's treatment, which I think is correct. If it were
simply an adjective, we'd expect to see "playing with wild deuces" early on
rather than "playing with deuces wild."  Granted, one could think of "wild"
as a postpositive adjective like "apparent" in "heir apparent," but I think
it has more in common with postpositive adverbs like "akimbo," "aplenty,"
and "galore," as described here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpositive_adjective

--bgz


On Mon, Oct 3, 2016 at 11:40 AM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:

> Very interesting, Ben.  What's the analysis that leads to the conclusion
> that  “wild” in “deuces wild” functions as an adverb?  Why is it not simply
> an adjective modifying "deuces"?
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Ben Zimmer
> Sent: Monday, October 3, 2016 11:34 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: wild card
>
> My latest WSJ column is on the term "wild card" in poker, sports, and
> politics.
>
> http://www.wsj.com/articles/baseball-wild-cards-and-others-1475249471
>
> If the article is paywalled, you can get through by Googling the headline
> ("Baseball Wild Cards And Others") or following a social media link, e.g.:
>
> https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/781913020574404609
>
> Some antedatings from my research...
>
> * "wild" (adv.) 'of a playing card: having any rank chosen by the player
> holding it' (OED2 1927)
>
> ---
> _The New Harvard Song Book_, 1896, p. 141, col. 2
> Ben Stephenson looks just the same.
> He's always ready for a game
> Of deuces wild with aces up the sleeve--
> You wouldn't think he could deceive!
> https://books.google.com/books?id=mbEQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA141
> ---
> Davenport (Iowa) Daily Republican, Dec. 14, 1902, p. 7, col. 6
> The Walling court and the Oak Lane men were playing "deuce wild," that is,
> they were counting a deuce as anything they might choose.
> https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/37247458/
> ---
>
> * "wild card" 'a playing card whose rank can be chosen by the player
> holding it' (OED2 1940)
>
> ---
> Chicago Daily Tribune, May 9, 1916, p. 15, col. 5
> "In the Wake of the News," by Ring W. Lardner
> Bert -- Playing straight?
> Tom -- All jacks, and nothing wild.
> Lou -- That's the idear. Wild cards are a joke.
> https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/28709469/
> ---
> Saturday Evening Post, May 5, 1917, p. 10, col. 2
> "A Friendly Game," by Ring W. Lardner
> When you put wild cards in a poker game you blow the brains out of it. It's
> an insult to the man that got it up. You might as well add the story o' the
> two Irishmen to the Declaration of Independence, to make it funny.
> https://books.google.com/books?id=PZFJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA10
> ---
>
> Here's the earliest I've found for various sporting uses, in this case for
> a player in (college) football that can be freely substituted into a game:
>
> ---
> Austin (Tex.) Statesman, Jan. 15, 1959, p. A19, col. 5
> Gridiron Due "Wild Card"
> Los Angeles (AP) -- College football in 1959 will have the "wild card"
> player to follow the famous "lonesome end" of 1958. The "wild card" player
> will be a substitute who can re-enter a game as many times as his coach
> chooses, provided he goes in when the game clock is stopped.
> ---
>
> It's a bit challenging determining the early figurative use of "wild card"
> applied to a person ('someone who is unpredictable'), since that
> collocation can appear early on without alluding to the card-playing sense,
> simply as a "card" ('an eccentric character') who is "wild." Green's
> Dictionary of Slang has this example from Sean O'Casey's "The Plough and
> the Stars":
>
> ---
> 1926 S. O'Casey _Plough and the Stars_ Act III: I hope Fluther hasn’t met
> with any accident, he’s such a wild card.
> ---
>
> Given that O'Casey was Irish and that the American card-playing sense of
> "wild card" was not yet widespread in the 1920s, I think this should be
> read compositionally (i.e., as "wild CARD" rather than "WILD card"). An
> earlier example of the same phrase, well before the poker usage had come on
> the scene (see Lardner 1916 above):
>
> ---
> New York Times, May 22, 1904, p. 11, col. 4
> Dick [Foote] was a wild card. Too mad a bohemian to fit in with Eastern
> tastes, yet a fine actor and a ripe Shakespearean scholar.
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9807E4D91E3BE
> 631A25751C2A9639C946597D6CF
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
>
>

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