[Ads-l] antedating trans. "disappear,"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for your valuable analysis, Bill.

I looked at the OED information for the verb vanish (transitive). The
first citation was way back in 1450 (circa). Interestingly, one
citation pointed to the 1949 article in American Speech mentioned by
Bill.The first citation in the magic domain was this:

[Begin OED citation for vanish (transitive) in magic domain]
1886 Then he vanishes a birdcage and its occupant... Finally, he
vanishes his wife.
Pall Mall Gazette 23 December 4
[End OED citation]

Here is an earlier citation in the magic domain.

Date: 1877
Book Title: Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
Author: Professor Hoffmann
Second Edition
Publisher: George Routledge and Sons, London and New York
Quote Page xii and 510

https://books.google.com/books?id=xzAqAAAAYAAJ&q=%22vanish+a%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt - Page xii]
To Vanish a Large Ball with the aid of the Table
[End excerpt]

[Begin excerpt - Page 510]
If you are about to vanish a coin don't play shuttlecock with it from
hand to hand...
[End excerpt]

The first edition of this book also contains these matches.
Unfortunately, I cannot find a date within the first edition. Google
Books assigns the year 1876 to the first edition which is plausible.
https://books.google.com/books?id=aDsSmbq-IscC&pg=PR12&

Garson

On Thu, Mar 27, 2025 at 11:39 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> A week ago, Garson said "Maybe Bill Mullins can find early examples in the literature about magic."  I've finally gotten a chance to look in the AskAlexander database of conjuring literature ( https://conjuringarts.org/askalexander/ ), and was not able to antedate his 1883 cite.  For one thing, there really wasn't much of a stand-alone conjuring literature to search until 1900 or so.  Most of the books on magic before then were targeted to the general public, and are available in Hathitrust, Google books, archive.org, etc.  The periodical Mahatma started in 1895 and was targeted at magicians, and that is as good a point as any to note as the beginning of conjuring literature separate from generally available works.
>
> In addition, while "disappear" (trans.) is used by magicians, the standard term for this action (and by far, more commonly used) is "vanish".  A magician will vanish a ball from under a cup or a coin from his hand far more often than he will disappear one.
>
> Magician Sid Fleischman wrote:
> "Probably the oddest liberties the magician takes with language are in
> the realm of grammar. Without even a hocus-pocus he has changed a
> number of nouns into verbs. He may vest a handkerchief, sleeve a coin,
> pocket a gimmick, or tongue a cigarette. Generally he will use secret as a
> verb only in the past tense, i.e., the coin was secreted ['sikratId] in his
> trouser cuff. The intransitive verbs disappear and vanish have been turned
> into transitive verbs. Thus, the magician may speak of disappearing or
> vanishing a card. The adverb how is often used as a noun. The how of a
> trick, of course, refers to its method. "
>
> A. S. Fleischman, "Words in Modern Magic."  American Speech Vol. 24, No. 1 (Feb., 1949), pp. 38-42
>
>
>
>
> 1905 Sphinx v3n11 Jan 139/2
>
> You now apparently try to pick the coin out of the elbow you disappeared it into, and while doing so, and drawing everybody's attention to that elbow, you unobserved get the coin from your ear into the fingers of your right hand.
>
>
> W. Goldston, The Magician Annual 1907-1908 65/1
>
> In disappearing himself, the performer holds the sheet up in front of him, and the invisible man, who is behind him, relieves him of it. At a sign the assistant either drops the sheet, or "disappears" it through the back.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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