[Ads-l] "no great shakes" (1804)

[Ben Zimmer]

"no great shakes" (OED2 1819)

Hull Packet, Oct. 9, 1804, p. 4, col. 4
The match for 25gs. each, p.p. one mile, between Mr. Cooper's br. gelding,
No Great Shakes, and Mr. Hincks's bay gelding, Worse and Worse.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-hull-packet-and-east-riding-times-n/181029750/

(Further proof of Shapiro's Law that everything starts out as the name of a
racehorse.)

--bgz

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