[Ads-l] Motto: In God We Trust; All Others Cash

[Jonathan Lighter]

Great work, Garson.

I'm not sure, though, that we can say for sure that the 1865 juxtaposition
was unintentional, particularly if the two lines were side by side.
(Paraphrase: "We trust in God, but our commercial policy (for you) is cash."

The recent appearance of "In God We Trust" on money might have been
sufficient to generate the joke crystallized by the later, classic form of
the saying.

JL

On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 11:54 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> The motto in the subject line was mentioned on this mailing list by JL
> back in 2011. It is listed in Fred's "The Yale Book of Quotations",
> Mencken's "A New Dictionary of Quotations", Rees's "Brewer's Famous
> Quotations", Popik's website, and many other compendiums.
>
> The Quote Investigator website now has an article with an April 4,
> 1877 citation and a precursor citation on May 4, 1865.
>
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/12/10/cash/
>
> [Begin acknowledgement excerpt]
> Great thanks to Jonathan Lighter whose inquiry led QI to formulate
> this question and perform this exploration. Lighter pointed to an
> instance with the phrase “In God we trust – everybody else cash.”
> Special thanks to Barry Popik and Fred R. Shapiro for their pioneering
> research. Popik identified a precursor instance with “In God we trust.
> Terms cash.” Also thanks to discussant Joel S. Berson.
> [End acknowledgement excerpt]
>
> Feedback welcome
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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