[Ads-l] Antedating of "Poker" (Card Gane) by Barry Popik

[Ben Zimmer]

Here's Barry's clipping of the article:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-poker-eucre-bluff-an/185132047/

As Barry notes, the spelling in the article is "eucre," not "euchre."

On Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 7:17 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> As I have said before, there are a bunch of people on this list who are
> cleverer than I am and post amazing and important antedatings.  However,
> the one who most awes me with the quantity of their important antedatings
> is Barry Popik.  I have tried for decades to find citations for the very
> important term "poker" (card game) earlier than the OED's 1832 cite,
> without success.  The 1832 cite was found by James Clapp and passed on to
> the OED by me.  Now Barry has found "poker" in 1827:
>
> poker (OED, n4, 1832)
>
> 1827 National Banner and Nashville Whig 29 Sept. 1 / 2 (Newspapers.com)
>
> While at Mobile, Alston was engaged at a match game of bluff or poker for
> $300 with a certain Mr McAdams, who is one of the shrewdest bluff, poker,
> seven-up or euchre players in the United States.
>
>

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