[Ads-l] OED Entry for "Rainmaker"

[Shapiro, Fred]

In the OED's entry for "rainmaker," sense 4 is a figurative use meaning someone who attracts clients to a firm.  The first two citations for this sense are dated 1895 and 1897.  I have not studied the citation sources carefully, but I believe that these 1895 and 1897 citations do not illustrate the client-attracting sense, rather they illustrate a different sense with the meaning of "charlatan."

Fred Shapiro

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