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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is the pertinent sense for the verb "cook" in the OED (to provide
background). The 1751 citation applies "cooked up" to accounts. None
of the citations for this sense included the word "book" or "books".

cook, v.1
3. c. To present in a surreptitiously altered form, for some purpose;
to manipulate, ‘doctor’, falsify, tamper with. colloq.

1636   Earl of Strafford Let. 25 July (1739) II. 16   The Proof was
once clear, however they have cook'd it since.

1751   T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle IV. cvi. 227   Some falsified
printed accounts, artfully cooked up, on purpose to mislead and
deceive.

1848   J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. i. ix. §2   These accounts, even
if cooked, still exercise some check.

1872   J. A. H. Murray in Complaynt Scotl. Introd. p. cxvii   The
editor was attacked by..Pinkerton, for not printing the text ‘as a
classic’, i.e. cooking the spelling, &c., as he himself would have
done.


On Mon, Feb 4, 2019 at 12:01 AM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> 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"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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