[Ads-l] Earliest Use of "Cook the Books"

[Peter Reitan]

Not knowing how far back you've found it already, I don't know whether these are helpful.

Phrases.org.uk has an example of the word, "to cook," in the sense of "present in a surreptitiously altered form," from 1636.

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cook-the-books.html

In a quick search, I found "cook the books" in the 1860s and "cook the accounts" in the 1840s.

The earliest "cook the books" I saw is from the Saturday Review (London), July 13, 1861, page 39 (HathiTrust).
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112078712939;view=1up;seq=57

"It is no more than fair for a Dissenting grocer to say that the parson of the parish is not a safe savings bank manager, because he may be tempted by his zeal for religion to cook the books of all the Wesleyan depositors in the district."

The expression was well-established enough in 1865 that it appeared in a German-language linguistics book, Dr. Max Mueller's Bau-wau-Theorie und der Ursprung der Sprache, Leipzig, Verlag von Bernhard Schlicke, 1865, page 148. Hathitrust.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx5925;view=1up;seq=160

". . . to cook the books, d. i. die Buecher falsch fuehren . . . ."


The earliest "cook the accounts" I found is from 1849.
Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle (Portsmouth, England), June 16, 1849, page 2. (Newspapers.com)
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28010089/hampshire_telegraph_and_naval_chronicle/


"The traders and professional men won't pay the tax.  They juggle with their consciences; cook their accounts; falsify their returns, and leave the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the lurch."



------ Original Message ------
From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 2/3/2019 2:48:14 PM
Subject: Earliest Use of "Cook the Books"

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Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Subject: Earliest Use of "Cook the Books"
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I am trying to push back the use of the phrase "cook the books" (to falsify=
accounting records in order to conceal actual financial activities or cond=
ition of a business) as far as I can. Any suggestions of early citations w=
ould be welcome.

Fred Shapiro

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