[Ads-l] to "pull a fast one"

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jun 7 23:38:54 UTC 2023


On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 2:37 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> OED has fig. (and obs.?) "put over a fast one" from 1913, making it the
> earliest "fast one" (shrewd or deceptive maneuver)
>

Here's a figurative example from 1910:

---
https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-news-put-over-a-fast-one/126032352/
Joliet (Ill.) Evening Herald, Sep. 22, 1910, p. 1, col. 5
"Put Over a Fast One" on Proud Senior Lads
In order to "put one over" on the proud and haughty seniors, a quartette of
junior high school students leased a mammoth one horse shay and became a
part of the Moose parade. They decorated the carriage with class colors and
"1912" and shouted their class yell many times.
---

OED has "put one over" in the sense "to perpetrate (a deception or hoax) on
a person" from 1905.

--bgz

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