[Ads-l] Antedating "the whole shooting match" (1871)

[Peter Reitan]

An earlier idiom, "the whole shoot" (1854), may be a predecessor.  In a post on my blog, I speculated it may have had an influence on "whole shebang."  Shebang, or che-bang, sometimes used as onomatopoeia for the sound of a gun, although "shebang" also had one or two other meanings.  I speculated a connection to shooting match as well, but did not include any early examples of that.

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/03/bad-ale-ramshackle-buildings-and-odd.html<https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/03/bad-ale-ramshackle-buildings-and-odd.html?m=1>.

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2020 12:45:38 PM
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Subject: Antedating "the whole shooting match" (1871)

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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Subject:      Antedating "the whole shooting match" (1871)
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Several years ago I went looking for early appearances of the idiom "the
whole shooting match" and came up with a few from the early 1880s [1].

And now I find this one, from 1871, which I love.

"A surprise party was given Mrs. C.O. Morse at the residence of her sister,
Mrs. George Kirby last Thursday evening. The following people were present:
Misses Blanche Waller, Maisie Marshall, Alice Pritchard, Alice Pocock,
Carrie Sparrowhawk, Messrs. A. Batchelor, Jim McIntyre, C. Rankin, Chas.
Streeter, Bob Sparrowhawk. The city marshal came near arresting the whole
shooting match for disturbing the peace so we presume they had a good
time." (From "Local and Personal Notes," The Wakefield [Kansas] Herald, 1
April 1871, p. 2.)

-- Bonnie

[1]
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2013-October/128771.html

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