[Ads-l] Main squeeze

[Steven Losie]

The OED3 entry for "main squeeze" has two senses. Sense (a) defines it as
"an important person; the person in charge, the 'boss'".

Both the OED and Green's Dictionary of Slang (GDoS) trace this sense of
"main squeeze" back to Chicago-based columnist George Ade's 1896 book
_Artie_.

At least the first two of the following three citations antedate that book:

[begin quote]
The cheers that greeted his peroration "There shall be no more public
gambling in Chicago during this administration" amply repaid him, however,
for the previous rebuffs.

Not less than 500 gamblers heard the requiem chanted over their game at
Central Music Hall and the First National Methodist Church. The sleek,
high-tiled and diamond-bedizened "main squeeze," the brazen steerer, the
clarion-tongued croupier, the hefty bouncer, and the only dealer—all were
represented in the monster gathering.
[end quote]
Source: The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), September 24, 1894, p.1, col.7
Database: Newspapers.com

[begin quote]
In the afternoon the camp was turned over to the soldiers for a
jollification. Discipline was relaxed and a mock parade was organized with
Private Jack Holland as captain, adjutant and main squeeze.
[end quote]
Source: The Chicago Chronicle, Jul 20, 1895, p.5, col.7
Database: Newspapers.com

[begin quote]
"The main squeeze" is a new piece of slang. It means "the head push," the
"main guy," the "high roller," the "big gun," and if you don't know now,
you don't understand good English when you hear it.
[end quote]
Source: Emporia (KS) Daily Gazette, March 20, 1896, p.1., col.1
Database: America's Historical Newspapers (Readex / Newsbank)

Two more instances from 1896 may help shed light on the origin of the
phrase, as gambling or criminal slang:

[begin quote]
Speaking of his experience in safe blowing, and without any coloring
whatever, this individual soared off as follows:

"[...]De main guy in de gang said dat de nitro was on top and de gang said
no. Well, dey scrapped and de culls waz arrested. De gang dat waz sunk got
it, but de main squeeze had his way and poured de top juice off. Den dey
blowed de town without de coin."
[end quote]
Source: The Daily News (Denver, Colorado) (Rocky Mountain News), July 12,
1896, p.2, col.1
Article Title: "Conversing With Crooks"
Database: Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale)

[begin quote]
Ordinarily the arrest of the main squeeze of a gambling house would result
in the complete demoralization of the game for a time at least.
[end quote]
Source: The Daily News (Denver, Colorado) (Rocky Mountain News), Dec 9,
1896, p.7, col.1
Article Title: "Gamblers Are All Busy"
Database: Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale)

The OED and GDoS's earliest citation is:

[begin quote]
I went in and asked the main squeeze o' the works how much the sacque meant
to him[...]
[end quote]
Title: Artie
Author: George Ade
Date: 1896
Page: 63
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
City: New York
Database: Internet Archive

OED3's Sense (b) of "main squeeze" is defined as "a sweetheart, a lover",
which the OED claims began as a pun on "squeeze (n. 2b)", which is defined
as "a close embrace, a hug". Both the OED and GDoS date this sense of "main
squeeze" to 1926, but two earlier attestations support this sense's origins
as a pun:

[begin quote]
Billy—"Tilly seems to be very popular." Milly—"Oh, she lets all the fellows
hug her." Billy—"Thinks she's the main squeeze, eh?"
[end quote]
Source: Allentown (PA) Morning Call, Dec 14, 1920, p.18, col.5
Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers

[begin quote]
"Now, there's Miss Klacker," said Augustus. "She is a brunet, and pretty.
She has very small feet and a tiny mouth. But she is poor, and I prefer
rich ones."

"But her father runs a large apple orchard and I heard that she was the
main squeeze in the cider department," said Tom.
[end quote]
Source: The Pittsburg Press (Pittsburgh, PA), July 29, 1921, p.18, col.3
Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers

The OED's first attestation of Sense (b) comes from Maines and Grant's 1926
_Wise-crack Dictionary_, which is also the first instance where Sense (b)
is used without referencing the pun. GDoS uses the same source:

1926   G. H. Maines & B. Grant Wise-crack Dict. 11/2   Main squeeze, best
girl.

Another unambiguous usage of "main squeeze" in this romantic sense is not
found for another 41 years, but there are three more instances of the
phrase in that period that I could find that do at least hint at it. But
these could also be read as broad usages of Sense (a):

[begin quote]
"Singing The Blues" was so well liked that it necessitated four encores to
satisfy the craving of the dancers for more. Rose Marie Jones was absent,
much to the sorrow of several young men who have been trying to second
fiddle the main squeeze. S'matter, Rose Marie?
[end quote]
Source: The Light and Heebie Jeebies (Chicago, Illinois)
Article Title: "The Dance - Metronomes"
Oct 22, 1927, p.39, col.1
America's Historical Newspapers (Readex / Newsbank)

The following instance is another written by Chicago-based syndicated
columnist George Ade. The typo is in the original ("wine" should be "mine"):

[begin quote]
Have you sized up my new strip o' calico? Little brighteyes is a peach, a
cute rag, a lallypaloozer, a honey-cooler, a jimdandy, a scorchalorum. I
hot-footed up to her hang-out, got the glad hand an' we proceeded to
circulate. With her I'm the main squeeze, aces and eights, the stroke oar.
Without tossin' any bouquets at myself, I'll put you hep to the fact that
all the yaps, jays, greenies, rubes an' yokels are also-rans. She's nuts
about me. When I wrap my fin around her an' take the old lunch-hook in
wine, she can't see nobody else with a telescope. Yes sir, I've copped out
a queen an' she's for me from sody to hock, from soup to nuts.
[end quote]
Source: The Hartford Courant, April 29, 1934, p. D2, col.3
Article Title: Slang Of Today Invented Back In The Gay Nineties
Author: George Ade
Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers

The final instance from before the 1960s is more clearly Sense (a) in pun
form, arriving at Sense (b), similar to the 1920 and 1921 instances. The
phrase is found in the caption of a one-panel cartoon from 1943,
accompanying a suggestive drawing of a young female stenographer sitting on
her older, male boss's lap:

[begin quote]
The office stenog thinks that she is the main squeeze in her outfit.
[end quote]
Source: Binghamton (NY) Press
Comic strip title: Witty Kitty
September 3, 1943, p.28, col.2
Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Still, the romantic Sense (b) of "main squeeze" is not found again with
certainty until 1967, when it appeared in a widely-reprinted Boston Globe
article as slang among the Black American community:

[begin quote]
NEGRO TERM [.....] ENGLISH TRANSLATION

[..]

main squeeze [.....] best girl
[end quote]
Source: Boston Globe, June 11, 1967, p.E7, col.3
Article Title: Americans Who Can't Speak Their Own Language
Author: Lloyd Shearer
Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers

The next found instance is also the first instance to use "main squeeze" in
the familiar possessive form:

[begin quote]
[Albert] King has a husky voice that is suited to just talking out his
material. In the ten minutes of "Blues Power," King tells you exactly where
he is at. "I ain't seen my main squeeze for ten long weeks today. I got the
blues. . .Can you dig it?" Then the guitar explodes into sound and you
can't help but dig it.
[end quote]
Source: The Spectrum (Buffalo, New York), November 5, 1968, p.12, col.2
Article Title: Record Review: Live Wire / Blues Power
Database: NYS Historic Newspapers

Sense (b) appeared regularly thereafter, but neither the OED nor GDoS have
citations for it until 1971 or later, aside from the isolated 1926 instance
in the aforementioned _Wise-crack Dictionary_. Here are four more citations
for Sense (b) before 1970:

[begin quote]
Main man — A woman's boyfriend; a man's closest friend. Feminine form:
_main squeeze_.
[end quote]
Source: New York Times Magazine, Dec 8, 1968, p.88, col.3
Title: Soul Story
Author: Adrian Dove
Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers

Ellipses in the original:
[begin quote]
New Nomenclature to Note: "Main squeeze"...a guy's best girl.
"Fly"...spectacular scene, THE thing. "Rap"...to talk, gossip.
[end quote]
Syndicated in various newspapers including:
Source: Florence Times (Florence, Alabama), March 14, 1969, p.A2, col.4
Article title: Youth Beat
Author: Robert MacLeod
Database: Google Books

Typo in the original ("in" should be "is"):
[begin quote]
Slanguage: The "main squeeze" in now a guy's steady chick.
[end quote]
Source: New York Daily News (as New York Sunday News), May 4, 1969, p.47,
col.2
Article Title: Strictly Youthsville
Author: Adam Di Petto
Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Ellipses in the original:
[begin quote]
IT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING . . . JOIN THE SOUL UNDERGROUND . . . GET YOUR
OFFICIAL SOUL POWER, SOUL BROTHER OR SOUL SISTER SWEATSHIRT . . .

[..]

GET ONE FOR YOURSELF, AND ONE FOR YOUR MAIN SQUEEZE . . .
[end quote]
Source: Soul (Los Angeles, CA), August 11, 1969, p.15, col.1
Database: America's Historical Newspapers (Readex / Newsbank)

In July 1969, Quincy Jones released an instrumental single called "Main
Squeeze". Janis Joplin was being backed by a backing band called "Main
Squeeze" by the end of the year.

Note that the "important person" sense of the phrase was still in
occasional use into the 1950s:

[begin quote]
Informed Citizens in Action is the new name of what used to be Citizens in
Action, Inc., a non-profit organization. J. Frank Burke, who dynamoed the
original, seems to be the main squeeze in the newly named group.
[end quote]
Source: Daily News (Los Angeles, CA), Jan 23, 1952, p.17, col.2
Article title: Taft Still GOP Fair-Haired Boy
Author: Leslie E. Claypool
Database: Newspapers.com

[begin quote]
However, to keep in practice for the official banquet, the group would meet
for a feed several times a year on the call of the Main Squeeze, who was
Mr. Henne himself.
[end quote]
Source: The Journal-news (Spencerville, OH), Aug 19, 1954, p.1, col.2
Article title: The Good Word
Author: "ben"
Database: Newspapers.com

Given all these citations, it would appear that "main squeeze" likely
originated as a bit of gambling slang, possibly in the Chicago area in the
late 1800s, using the OED's sense (n. 3a.) of "squeeze", which they trace
back as far as 1639: "To press upon (a person, etc.) so as to exact or
extort money; to fleece."

The OED also has definitions (n. 1e.) and (v. 1f.) of "squeeze" that relate
to card-playing, both of which first appeared in the U.S. in the 1890s,
around the same time that "main squeeze" Sense (a) first did. These are all
used in a sense of pressuring someone for money.

The term was then transferred to the romantic sense of "main squeeze",
originating as a pun using OED's "squeeze" sense (2b.), referring to an
embrace or hug. The OED traces this hug sense of "squeeze" back to 1790.
"Main squeeze" in the romantic sense (first as a pun) began appearing in
the 1920s, though it wasn't until the 1960s that it began to appear in
print regularly, which resulted in Sense (a) being mostly forgotten
thereafter.

Antedatings and revisions are welcome.

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