[Ads-l] Scam etymology

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

There were three entries for "scamus" in this 1935 dictionary of
underworld slang. Either the term was ill-defined, or the editor was
confused.

Date: 1935 Copyright
Book Title: The Underworld Speaks
Editor: Albin J. Pollock
Unnumbered Page
Publisher: Prevent Crime Bureau, San Francisco, California

https://archive.org/details/underworldspeaks0000albi/page/n113/mode/2up?q=scamus

[Begin excerpt]
Scamus, a jail.
Scamus, a lewd act.
Scamus, a vice den.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 9:01 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Widely syndicated gossip columnist Earl Wilson suggested that "scam"
> was "Hollywood slang" and offered his readers a very different
> explanation in 1949.
>
> Date: May 18, 1949
> Newspaper: Evening Courier
> Newspaper Location: Camden, New Jersey
> Article: It Happened Last Night
> Author: Earl Wilson
> Quote Page 35, Column 5
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-courier-scam/199342664/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "WHAT'S THE SCAM?" Frank said to me.
> (Scam's Hollywood slang for "deal," "plot," "news," etc.)
> "That's what I want to know," I said.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson O'Toole
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 8:45 PM Ben Zimmer
> <00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Green's Dictionary of Slang has this related sense of the verb "scam":
> >
> > ---
> > https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ffxh2sa
> > 4. (US campus, also _scam on_) to go in search of and look over the
> > opposite sex for casual sex.
> > 1985 Eble _Campus Sl._ Oct. 9: scam -- to check out [...] Let’s go to the
> > pit and do some scamming on the guys.
> > 1992 D. Burke _Street Talk 2_ 2: I can’t believe you’re scamming on that
> > goob!
> > 1996 Eble _Sl. and Sociability_ 51: College students, who are perennially
> > preoccupied with the quest for a partner for romance or sex, _cruise_, _put
> > it in cruise mode_, _check it out_, _scam_, _scope_, or _troll_.
> > 2004 T. Fey _Mean Girls_ [movie script] You do not come to a party at my
> > house with Gretchen and then scam on some poor, innocent girl [...] three
> > days later.
> > ---

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