[Ads-l] Slang: hand someone a lemon

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

While researching the saying "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade"
I looked into the phrase "hand someone a lemon".

The Oxford English Diction has the following:

[Begin OED excerpt]
lemon noun 1. d.
to hand (someone) a lemon: to pass off a sub-standard article as good;
to swindle (a person), to do (someone) down.
[End OED excerpt]

The first OED citation is dated 1906. Here is an instance in 1905 that
matches the sense "do someone down".

[ref] 1905 July 19, Moberly Evening Democrat, Rode Twelve Miles, Quote
Page 1, Column 2, Moberly, Missouri. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

https://www.newspapers.com/image/15960758/?terms=%22lemon%22

[Begin excerpt]
A laughable feature of the race was when Roy Hulen endeavored to
overtake the rider to hand him a lemon.
[End excerpt]

I also came across the following which Barry Popik already clipped back in 2020.

[ref] 1905 November 18, The Evening World, Section The Evening Word’s
Home Magazine, The Man Higher Up by Martin Green, Quote Page 8, Column
4, New York, New York. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
"Do you think that J. Pierpont Morgan ever said 'what's the use' when
he thought somebody had handed him a lemon? If he had cultivated the
habit of regarding imposition as humorous play in life he would
probably be a curb broker to-day, getting his name in the papers once
a year by betting stage money on the election."
[End excerpt]

Here is another instance:

[ref] 1906 March 14, Salina Evening Journal, Ober, The Clothier,
Talks, (Advertisement for Ober’s Clothiers & Furnishers), Quote Page
6, Column 1, Salina, Kansas. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
You can increase your advertising space and change your ad every day;
you can tear out the old front and spend a thousand or two dollars
putting in a new one; you can kick out the old shelving and put in
brand new shining shelves; you can spend big money for window fixtures
and glass cases, and if you don't sell the best goods in the town for
the money, the public will hand you a lemon every time.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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