[Ads-l] the gift that keeps on giving
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Dec 11 16:12:37 UTC 2017
Earliest?:
1924 _Seattle Daily Times_ (Dec. 10) 4: The Christmas gift that keeps on
giving through every month of the year. A VICTROLA.
1924 _Trenton Evening Times_ (Dec. 18) 2: The gift that keeps on giving is
the best gift of all. The Christmas Victrola will give you entertainment
for every day in the year!
1924 _Times-Picayune_ (N.O.) (Dec. 17) 12: "The Gift That Keeps on Giving"
[Victrolas are illustrated.]
By the 1970s, the cliche' had become a sardonic descriptor of chronic
venereal disease. (Oops! I must mean "STDs"! "Venereal" involves love!).
JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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