[Ads-l] "shot" = 'hypodermic injection' (1889)

[James Eric Lawson]

Semi-weekly interior journal (Stanford, KY), May 28, 1886, Image 2, col
1. Use of 'shot' as a verb, rather than as a noun:

That unfortunate individual was suffering with
severe pain, when Maxwell suggested a
hypodermic injection of morphine. He
shot a big quantity in bis arm and Preller
was soon unconscious, when the work was
completed by applying chloroform to his
nose.

On 2/17/21 11:21 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> A recent Washington Post column by John Kelly discusses OED researcher Jon
> Simon's hunt for antedatings for "shot" in the sense of 'hypodermic
> injection' (OED2 1904).
> 
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/needle-shot-morphine-addiction/2021/02/15/288282d2-6fa8-11eb-93be-c10813e358a2_story.html
> 
> The earliest citation mentioned in the column is this one from 1889.
> 
> ---
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71304687/the-hypo-gun/
> San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 2, 1889, p. 5, col. 8
> The Hypo-Gun. How Morphine Victims Are Fed
> The morphine victim is cared for there -- as long as he has money. In all
> the houses frequented by the "fiends" is a man or a woman who sells the
> drug and injects it for a small sum. This useful person is called the
> "gunner," the syringe is termed the "gun," and administers to the fiend an
> injection, that is "a shot," for which he is paid 5 cents.
> ---

-- 
James Eric Lawson

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