[Ads-l] "whisperlow"

[Jonathan Lighter]

>From the HDAS files:

1929 _Vanity Fair_ (Nov.) 139: A speakeasy is a "whisper-low," a "hush
house," or a "_sotto voce_ parlor."

Cf.

1930 Jack Lait _Put On the Spot_  (N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap) 214: Whisper
(n.) Speakeasy.

Jack Lait (1883 -1954) was editor for King Features and later of the
tabloid N.Y. Daily Mirror. He also wrote several underworld novels.

JL (the other one)

On Wed, Mar 4, 2020 at 4:20 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
wrote:

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


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