[Ads-l] catbird seat (1910)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great work, Ben. Here is a variant expression in 1909: "From a
catbird's perch". It seems to mean: From a position of knowledge.

Date: September 3, 1909
Newspaper: Mount Carmel Daily Republican from Mount
Newspaper Location: Mount Carmel, Illinois
Article: Fortute in the River
Quote Page 02, Column 4
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/image/757511302/?match=1&terms=%22catbird

[Begin excerpt]
The next morning Tony denied finding any money or even finding a
pocketbook, and this in the face of the fellow who counted the money
for him. From a catbird's perch it seemed very much as if some one had
seen Tony in the meantime and advised him to keep still about it.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Mar 31, 2025 at 9:03 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Garson previously antedated "(in) the catbird seat" to 1916 -- see below.
> Here it is from 1910 (without the "in").
>
> Ledger-Dispatch (Norfolk, Va.), June 28, 1910, p. 4, col. 3
> Col. Roosevelt will never convince Governor Hughes that the Supreme Court
> bench is not the cat-bird seat.
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/ledger-star-cat-bird-seat/169255562/
>
> --bgz
>
> On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 5:25 AM Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Idiom: In the catbird seat (antedating 1916)
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > In the catbird seat
> >
> > This phrase is in the OED, HDAS and many other slang dictionaries. The
> > World Wide Words website has a page about the saying, and so does the
> > Phrase Finder website. Wikipedia has an entry for the idiom.
> >
> > http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cat2.htm
> > http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/87600.html
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catbird_seat
> >
> > All of the references I have examined cite the classic 1942 short
> > story by James Thurber titled "The Catbird Seat" as the first known
> > appearance in print of the expression. The work appeared in the
> > November 14, 1942 issue of the New Yorker. Here is the relevant OED
> > definition:
> >
> > catbird, n.
> > 2. Phr. the catbird seat: a superior or advantageous position. U.S. slang.
> >
> > Michael Quinion notes an association with poker:
> >
> > Red Barber said in the Saturday Review in 1958 that he first heard it
> > during a game of penny-ante poker while he was in Cincinnati,
> > presumably sometime in the 1930s, and borrowed it for his radio
> > broadcasts.
> >
> > The 1916 citation below uses the phrase in the domain of poker. The
> > author describes a series of occasions where he thinks laughter is
> > appropriate:
> >
> > Cite: 1916, Report of the Thirty-Third Annual Session of the Georgia
> > Bar Association, Held at Tybee Island Georgia June 1-3, 1916,
> > Interesting and Humorous Experiences at the Bar: Paper by Roland Ellis
> > of Macon, Page 180, J.W. Burke Company, Macon, Georgia. (Google Books
> > full view)
> >
> > Or, to chuckle like a loser at 2 A. M. in the catbird seat as he
> > squeezes an ace-high flush, to have the stenographer of the member of
> > the court of review assigned your cause, hand you the lemon of an
> > unread record, as he headnotes the information that the discretion of
> > the bonehead below "will not be disturbed."
> >
> >
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=lsE8AAAAIAAJ&q=catbird#v=snippet&q=catbird&f=false
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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