[Ads-l] Antedating of "Whammy"

[Shapiro, Fred]

whammy (OED 1940, Green 1939)

1925 Cleveland Press 21 Aug. 10/1 (Newspapers.com)  WH-A-M-M-Y !  When B. D. Jones went to his bakery ... to light the ovens and preapare for business, he was a trifle astonished to see the oven roof ascend to the ceiling and the glass fall out of the front windows.

1927 Pittsburgh Gazette Times 14 May 9/2 (Newspapers.com)  I guess he has a "whammy" ball or something.  He makes you go after it whether you want to or not.

1929 Standard Union (Brooklyn, N.Y.) 4 Apr. 18/1 (Newspapers.com)  For lo, these many years - eleven, to be exact --the Phillies have been trying to shake off the whammy which has kept them in ninth place.

NOTE: The 1927 citation above is reminiscent of the 1912 citations for "jazz."

Fred Shapiro

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