[Ads-l] moolah/mulah (1936)

[Dan Goncharoff]

The building dates to 1912.

The Moolah Temple as an organization goes back to the 19th century.

DanG

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 2:32 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The _Moolah_ Temple of the St. Louis chapter of the Ancient, Arabic Order
> of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, A.K.A. the Shriners, dates from 1912.
> Since I was a child, I've wondered whether there was any connection between
> this "Moolah Temple" and the other _moolah_.
>
> On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 1:39 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > OED3's earliest for "moolah" is from 1937, a cite that Stephen Goranson
> > shared here in 2010:
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-July/101435.html
> >
> > Barry Popik has found a nice antedating that also provides an intriguing
> > explanation for the word's origin.
> >
> > ----
> > Daily News (New York, NY), Feb. 21, 1936, p. 46, col. 1
> > "Mainly About Manhattan," by John Chapman
> > Lou Frankel, who digs into slang and the reasons behind it, offers a few
> > show business terms: [...]
> > Mulah--money. Lou always thought it was Arabic or Syrian, but research
> > turns up this: A colored vaudeville team used the word years ago. One of
> > the partners played the role of a Chinese, and the other one, playing a
> > colored man, owed him money. The "Chinese" asked for his mulah which was
> > his idea of pidgin English.
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35394640/mulahmoolahmoney_1936/
> > ----
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org