[Ads-l] Scam etymology

[Ben Zimmer]

Another data point, from 1950:

---
https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-carnie/199299574/
Citizen-News (Hollywood, Cal.), Dec. 26, 1950, p. 2, col. 1
"Odd Lingo Explained: Carnie Heeds Law, But Con Man Doesn't"
Research begun recently at the University of California at Los Angeles by
Dr. Edwin M. Lemert, assistant professor of sociology, indicates a striking
similarity between the language of the carnie, person working with a
carnival, and of the con man, one who swindles by gaining the confidence of
a "mark" (victim) and taking money from him under false pretenses. [...]
"Certain words, such as 'strom,' 'gischray,' and 'skam,' have many meanings
and yet have no meaning at all," explains Dr. Lemert. "You have to take
part in the conversation to understand what is meant by such words."
---

(I've seen "strom" in lists of carny lingo defined as "the handle or pedal
that controls a rigged game." No idea about "gischray.")

Jonathon Green's suggestion that the word comes from "scheme" seems
plausible.

--bgz

On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 9:42 AM Zeke Faux <zeke at zekefaux.com> wrote:

> Hi everybody – I’m a writer and investigative reporter (author of a book on
> crypto and fraud called Number Go Up) and I am looking into the etymology
> of the word “scam” for a new book.
>
> Some sources (OED) cite a 1963 interview with Steve McQueen in Time
> Magazine as the first usage. He’s talking about when he was a carny, and he
> says, “It was a full scam. My boss was scammin’ from the public and I was
> scammin’ from him.” A few years later, the word appeared in the Wall Street
> Journal, and at that time, the writer explained that it was originally
> carny slang, but was now being applied to bankruptcy fraud.
>
> But Green’s has an entry from 1958, a use in a novel called Vice Trap
> that’s not in a carnival context. “He scammed me the stuff was yours.”
>
> There are also two early entries in Green’s for similar words. Neither
> comes from carnies:
> D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 201: By this time I figure out what the scamus
> is. (1944)
> C. Stoker Thicker ’n Thieves 406: This obviously was newspaper ‘skam’
> designed to buttress the political fortunes of Mayor Bowron. (1951)
>
> I couldn’t find any references to “scam” in David Maurer’s books (my
> favorite con man reference), and my attempts to verify the carny origins in
> articles about carny slang have failed.
>
> Does anyone know where this word comes from, and if the carny story is
> true? Thank you, Zeke
>
>

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