[Ads-l] "Pay It Forward" Not in OED

[Bill Mullins]

>   The common phrase "pay it forward" does not appear to be in OED.  According to Wikipedia, it appears
>   in the books Lily Hardy Hammond, In the Garden of Delight (1916) and Robert Heinlein, Between Planets (1951).

Neither, for that matter, does "pay it back".  Although payback (n) and pay back (v) do.

1903 Unity 17 Dec 249/1

If there is a debt, pay it forward to the world and not back, and find your encouragement in the truth that the future holds more inspiration than the past.

https://archive.org/details/per_unity_unity_1903-12-17_52_16/page/249/mode/1up?q=%22pay+it+forward%22



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