[PW] A dime a dozen

[Dennis Lien]

At 08:39 AM 8/16/2007, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>This is the listing from the Oxford English Dictionary:
>
>. Phr. a dime a dozen, so plentiful as to be almost worthless. Also
>dime-a-dozen attrib. phr. N. Amer. colloq.
>
>1930 C. TERRETT Only Saps Work 188 These are mere dime-a-dozen rackets,
>compared with the truly big-time stock market swindles. 1948 Galveston
>(Texas) News 14 June 7/7 Sunday night at the cocktail party and buffet
>supper, choice fishing stories were a dime a dozen. 1970 M. PEI Words in
>Sheep's Clothing ii. 12 Coinages of the type of 'power-pak' are a dime a
>dozen. 1977 I. SHAW Beggarman, Thief III. ix. 328 'I thought you were
>too good looking just to be nobody.' 'A dime a dozen,' Wesley said. 'I'm
>just a seaman at heart.'
>
>A casual search of the Internet lists a few sites that give the 1930
>date as the origin, so I am assuming that these sites are referring to
>the Turrett Work.
>
>Hope this helps,
>
>
>Patty Hatch


I can predate 1930 with searchs of fulltext NY TIMES and CHICAGO TRIBUNE bases:

JERSEY JUSTICE DECLINES TO STOP LEONARD MILL
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963); Jul 23, 1922; ProQuest Historical 
Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1985)
pg. A3

includes this passage, quoting boxer Bennie Leonard:

Leonard said today: "It's the joke fight of my career.  I'd rather fight
this fellow any day than either Britton or Kansas.  My honest opinion of
Tendler is that he is just a good mauler, and those fellows are a dime
a dozen to me."

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Some putdown in some context used by another boxer reported a few years
later in:


MR. FITZSIMMONS SEEKS UNHAPPY MEDIUM FOR JACK
WESTBROOK PEGLER
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963); May 22, 1927; ProQuest Historical 
Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1985)
pg. A7

and in at least seven pre-1930 "Sports of the Times" columns by John Kieran in
the NEW YORK TIMES.

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Also, a google in book search shows at least these pre-1930 (maybe more, as
their *&*(&(&&**!!!* report for appearances in periodical issues always list
only under the date a particular periodical *started*, so all oocurences in,
say, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY are dated as 1873 even if the snippets are clearly
talking about matters of a century or more later...)

but the following all appear to be books and presumably the dates can be
trusted:

Inside Track: The Way Through the Wonderful Fruit and Flower Garden of 
Southern California
by Southern Pacific Company Passenger Dept - 1907
In Los Angeles, where top tycoons and posh office suites are a dime a 
dozen, and
our layout is comparatively modest, our problem is just the opposite. ...


Gunner Depew - Page 205
by Albert N. Depew - 1918 - 312 pages
... who did not give a dime a dozen whether we heard them or not. Fritz is like
some other hot sketches — he is funniest when he does not mean to be. ...


The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast ... - Page 64
by William Cowper Brann - 1919
The verdict is an outrage, such husbands not being worth a dime a dozen. Mrs.
Lockwood should have thanked her parents-in-law for ridding her of such a ...

********

Nothing relevant found in the MAKING OF AMERICA sites at Cornell or UMichigan,
however, which suggests that the phrase wasn't known (or at least wasn't
common) in the nineteenth century.


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu

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