[Ads-l] Antedating of "Loan Shark"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here are two citations in the time period close to the earliest known
citations for "loan shark". These citations are intended to help
illustrate the evolution of the term "loan shark". Ben's WSJ piece has
a pertinent citation from the 1700s: "In the London newspaper the
Guardian in 1713, Richard Steele warned of 'the Sharks, who prey upon
the Inadvertency of young Heirs.'"

In 1865 the phrase "Wall street sharks" referred to individuals who
offered loans at "enormous rates".

In 1871 "Washington sharks" referred to individuals offering loans at
10% to 20% a month.

Date: November 10, 1865
Newspaper: Lewisburg Chronicle
Newspaper Location: Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Article: A new object of Copperhead Hate
Quote Page 2, Column 2
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
The Rebels bad stolen our funds as well as our arms and ships, had
borrowed largely in Europe, and stripped their own people. To
counteract them, the Union also must have money. The Administration,
instead of going abroad, or paying enormous rates to capitalists and
Wall street sharks, for loans, boldly resolved to seek aid from the
masses of the people. Rebels and Copperheads laughed at the attempt,
and prophecied that it would be "utter failure" to ask the North to
lend money to "conquer the South."
[End excerpt]

Date: August 18, 1871
Newspaper: The Evening News (The Indianapolis News)
Newspaper Location:
Article: "SCRAPS"
Quote Page 2, Column 3
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Washington sharks loan money at from ten to twenty per cent. a month.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 9:45 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am aware of the term "money shark" used in the 1870s to refer to traders
> who bought and sold, and were deemed to control, currency, which was
> essentially privately issued in the US.
>
> I am also aware of the phrase "loan shark" to refer to those who did the
> same with loans and mortgages at roughly the same time.
>
> Ben's citation looks like an interesting example of the transition from one
> meaning of loan shark to another.
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 8:53 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 8:03 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > loan shark (OED 1905)
> > >
> > > 1875 _Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury_ 24 Apr. 12/2
> > > (Newspapers.com)  It was not the privileges of Parliament that were
> > > involved, but the interests of loan sharks and lobbyers.
> > >
> > > NOTE: This citation calls into question the statement "Originally U.S."
> > in
> > > OED.
> > >
> >
> > I wrote about "loan shark" last May for the Wall Street Journal:
> >
> >
> > https://www.wsj.com/articles/loan-shark-a-name-borrowed-to-deliver-a-financial-bite-11558643116
> >
> > Researching the column, I clipped the 1875 item that Fred cites:
> >
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31746544/loan-shark/
> >
> > However, it's not at all clear that this usage relates to the meaning that
> > developed in American slang, referring to someone who charges excessive
> > interest on a loan. The rest of the sentence reads: "...the interests of
> > loan sharks and lobbyers, who are panic-stricken at the disclosures made
> > and promised before the Foreign Loans Committee." From this we can assume
> > the "loan sharks" were somehow involved with the UK government's Select
> > Committee on Loans to Foreign States.
> >
> > As I wrote in the WSJ column, the familiar American usage can be dated to
> > 1876, based on this:
> >
> > ---
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31746564/loan-shark/
> > Topeka (Kans.) Daily Blade, Feb. 22, 1876, p. 2, col. 1
> > It is wonderful, bordering on the God like, and quite reaching to the
> > sublime, to see the grand confidence of the Kansas farmer, as he walks up
> > to the counter of some Loan and Trust Company, with corn at 20 cents per
> > bushel, hay at 2 dollars per ton, and butter at 10 cents, and puts another
> > mortgage on his farm. Interest 12 per cent, and commission to the smiling
> > shark behind the counter at 10 per cent, on the whole sum borrowed.
> > Interest compounded four times, each and every year, and attorney fees 10
> > per cent. He has a touching confidence, that, long before it is due, he
> > will be amply and abundantly able to "lift it." He does not know that the
> > Loan shark, looks at his retreating form, as he walks away and smiles to
> > himself as he says: "We've got him sure."
> > ---
> >
> > I'd imagine that if the OED included the 1875 cite in a revised entry, it
> > would get the bracketed treatment.
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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