[Ads-l] Slang: hand someone a lemon

[Dan Goncharoff]

I wonder how this relates to the "prix lemon" in tennis and cycling.
DanG


On Fri, Apr 5, 2024 at 2:04 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

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

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