[Ads-l] Antedating of "kingpin"

[Laurence Horn]

I assume the unextended use for “kingpin”, which I assume is the basis for the extended use, is that in bowling. When I grew up (1950s), the #1 pin (the one with no siblings to the left or right) was the kingpin. But that’s apparently now archaic. The OED describes the use of “kingpin” for “The tallest and usually central pin in skittles and other similar games” as “now chiefly historical” (OK, in U.S.-style bowling it’s not tallest but it is central) and AHD refers the reader to “headpin”, with which I’m unfamiliar. I also have the impression that the organization of which the extended-use kingpin is monarch is usually a nefarious if not downright one: drug kingpin and so on. The leader of United Way would not normally be referenced as “a charity kingpin”. But that’s not included in either of the definitions.  (Shades of our thread on “mastermind”…)

—LH, now chiefly historical

> On Nov 28, 2023, at 4:10 PM, Steven Losie <stevenlosie at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> KINGPIN (n. 2b., OED3, 1861)
> 
> This is the figurative/extended sense of "kingpin". OED gives the
> definition: "A person who or thing which plays a central part in a system
> or complex arrangement".
> 
> A decade ago on this mailing list, Victor Steinbok traced back the various
> figurative meanings of "kingpin" and suggested the extended usage may have
> first been popularized in New York City in the 1800s:
> 
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2012-May/119584.html
> 
> The OED's first citation in this sense comes from the 10 December 1861
> edition of the New York Herald. Ben Zimmer has clipped an earlier source at
> newspapers.com, where the same figurative sense is used in the New York
> Herald on 29 April 1844. Here is an earlier attestation, also from New York
> City:
> 
> [begin quote]
> 
> It at present strikes me that the _king pin_ of the Anti-Clintonian party
> in your city is well aware that the people will never submit to an enormous
> load of taxes to support the dignity of the state to their ruin[...]
> 
> [end quote]
> 
> Source: The Daily Advertiser (New York, NY), 24 March 1789, p.2, col.4
> 
> Article title: An extract of a letter from a gentleman in the country to
> his friend in this city. (The letter is dated 15 March 1789.)
> 
> Database: America's Historical Newspapers (Readex/NewsBank)
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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