Date:    Fri, 13 Feb 1998 05:32:33 EST
<br>From:    "Barry A. Popik"  Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM 
<br>Subject: OIC; lead pipe cinch; frou-frou; shyster
<br>
<br>     A few etymologies before I call it a night and get two hours' sleep.
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<br>OIC
<br>
<br>    Oh, I see.  OIC.  This is used on the internet all the time, but it is not
<br>new.
<br>    The Pittsburgh Evening Telegraph, 22 March 1875, pg. 2, col. 2:
<br>
<br>     His motto is "O I C."  Not only does he see it, but everybody else
<br>does.--_Home Journal_.
<br>
<br>     John Stockwell or 95 Ann Street, New York City, took out daily ads in the
<br>New York newspapers in the 1870s for old newspapers, old pamphlets, and old
<br>blank books and ledgers.  (NY Evening Telegram, 18 June 1874, pg. 3, col. 2 is
<br>one such ad.)  The ads had "O (eye) C."
<br>     Perhaps it started there.
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<br>LEAD PIPE CINCH
<br>
<br>     The latest RHHDAS doesn't have this.  It's from THE SPORTING NEWS, 27
<br>September 1890, pg. 4, col. 5:
<br>
<br>     A "lead pipe cinch" had its origin on an East river boat.  A fat man
<br>jumped overboard.  A companion stood by and offered $1,000 to $10 that the fat
<br>man would not bob up again to the surface.  He was immediately taken up by
<br>several sports present and then the boat hove to, but no sign of the fat man
<br>appeared on the surface.  He had gone hopelessly to the bottom.  The stranger,
<br>after pocketing the stakes, said that the fat man a few minutes before had
<br>informed him he was going to commit suicide and showed him 100 pounds of lead
<br>pipe coiled about his stomach.
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<br>FROU-FROU
<br>
<br>     OED has 4 June 1870.  This is from the Pittsburgh Evening Chronicle, 3
<br>February 1870, pg. 4, col. 3:
<br>
<br>     "FROU-FROU."
<br>     The French frequently increase their vocabulary, and the last new word
<br>has, it seems, been adopted as the title of a play just now meeting great
<br>attention.  The correspondent of an English journal tells how the term
<br>originated:  "Paris is just now running after _frou-frou_.  You may thumb the
<br>dictionary in vain for the meaning of this word.  Look at this picture by
<br>Maismonier: a man at arms rests his musket at a prison door.  Far in the back
<br>ground a muffled woman furtively watches and stealthily but rapidly advances.
<br>The soldier's quick ear has been caught by a sound.  It is not that noiseless
<br>foot-fall, but the rustle--the _frou-frou_--of her silken dress.  By a
<br>fanciful association the word has come to be applied to fast young ladies who
<br>flash and rustle through their spring-time, and where passage, like that of a
<br>meteor, is apt to be marked by a train of sparks."
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<br>SHYSTER
<br>
<br>     I haven't checked the CHICAGO DEMOCRAT, but Library of Congress records
<br>show it was published 1833-1846 by J. Calhoun, and 1846-1857 by John
<br>Wentworth.  As per the previous posting, the 1846-1857 CHICAGO DEMOCRAT by
<br>John Wentworth must be checked, and this is too late for the origin of
<br>"shyster"--which we have from 1843.
<br>     Nevertheless, if we have a "shyster" in the 1840s, and we have a
<br>"shyster" case of slander from the 1870s, both must be investigated.  You
<br>never know.
<br>     For now, though, Gerald Cohen's dinner is safe.  But hold that pasta!
<br>