[Ads-l] "whisperlow"
George Thompson
george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Wed Mar 4 21:20:31 UTC 2020
This is not in the OED nor DARE.
I'm searching HRVH Historical Newspapers -- covering various newspapers
from the Hudson River Valley, and available to all, for free -- looking for
speakeasies and rum-runners.
I found one instance of "whisperlow" meaning "speakeasy":
. . . he disclosed that he was a Revenue officer and that he and his
overall-clad companion had just gotten evidence in the Butler "whisperlow.”
Sometime ago, when there were five other places in this village raided by
the federal prohibition officers,
Rockland County Evening Journal (Nyack, N. Y.), May 21, 1931
>From twenty years later, "whisperlow" appeared in 3 advertisements, meaning
prices so very low that they can be spoken only in a whisper:
SECOND FOR SYLVIA... And she's certainly having an easy time choosing her
stunning maternity ensemble at *whisperlow* prices. Where? At Maternally
Yours, of course. Dresses from $7.95. . . .
Scarsdale Inquirer, September 21, 1951
GAT
--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.
But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems. Boston, 1827, p. 112
The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool. (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)
http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851
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