[Ads-l] Antedating of "Strip Poker"

[Peter Reitan]

When I read the first strip poker post, I thought perhaps it might be related to "lose one's shirt."  But on closer inspection, I decided not.

I put up a post about "strip poker" with some amusing examples (at least I thought it was amusing).
https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2019/10/whoda-tunk-it-how-yale-researcher.html

I did some initial looking into early "lose one's shirt," and found the earliest examples in the early 1900s.

The earliest example I saw suggests the expression was already an old one on Wall Street.  In a story about a broker who tore his trousers and lost them after sending them out to be mended:

The New York Times, August 10, 1905, page 7. "Broker Loses His Trousers.  Often has a broker “lost his shirt” in the cotton pit, but never in the memory of the oldest member of the Exchange has a cotton man on the floor, literally as well as figuratively, lost his trousers - - until yesterday. "

The expression appears to have been common in poker by 1915.  In a story about a man who literally had his clothes stolen off of him while he slept:

The Prattville Progress (Prattville, Alabama), May 6, 1915, page 6.  "Thief Strips Man While He Sleeps. Wakes After ‘Forty Winks’ to Find Clothes Stolen Off His Back.  Boston. – ‘I lost my shirt’ is a not unfamiliar term in poker, but doesn’t often happen literally."


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Sent: 10/9/2019 1:40:25 PM
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Strip Poker"

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Subject: Re: Antedating of "Strip Poker"
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Mark Mandel wrote:
Unless I have skimmed past it, I haven't seen any mention
in this discussion the quite possibly relevant "lose one's shirt".

The OED entry that I displayed included "to lose one's shirt: to lose
all one's possessions". However, I typically limit the size of
excerpts to comply with copyright law. So I cut out most of the
citations. The first pertinent citation for " to lose one's shirt" in
the OED was dated 1935.

[Excerpt from OED]
shirt, n.
2. Phrases.
f. slang. to bet one's shirt , to put one's shirt on (a horse) =3D to
bet all one's money on. to get (a person's) shirt out , to cause him
to lose his temper. to keep one's shirt on: to remain calm (orig.
U.S.). to lose one's shirt : to lose all one's possessions.

1935 E. B. Mann Thirsty Range xi. 144 He hit the market..about the
time the bottom dropped out of it. He lost his shirt!
[Begin from OED]


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