[Ads-l] chestnut (trite talk) antedated; Origin of Kibosh reviewed

[Stephen Goranson]

Wheeling Register [WV] May 3, 1879, 4/2. A young reporter is having his fortune told. Obscure astrological blather ensues. He cuts this off:
"Oh! chestnuts! Drop that high flown truck and tell me if I'll ever be rich and get the prettiest girl in town."
https://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=WR18790503.1.4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Oh%21+Chestnuts%21%22-------
Wheeling Register 3 May 1879 — Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive<https://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=WR18790503.1.4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Oh%21+Chestnuts%21%22------->
Virginia Chronicle: historical archive of Virginia newspapers. Free access to full text searching and digitized images of over a million newspaper pages.
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The Origin of Kibosh book has been reviewed in Dictionaries journal 41/2 (2020) 289-98, along with two other books, by Michael Adams.

Stephen Goranson

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