[PW] Origin of "Talking through his hat"?

[Sylvia Milne]

There are other suggestions at
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/talking-through-your-hat.html
or http://tinyurl.com/yox47t
although the compiler admits that he can't find any documentary evidence.

Sylvia Milne

Please visit me at
http://www.sylviamilne.co.uk
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeanne Schramm" <jeanne.schramm at gmail.com>
To: <list at project-wombat.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: [PW] Origin of "Talking through his hat"?


> Here is a mention (without attribution) from the U.S. presidential 
> election
> of 1888:
> http://www.writersblock.ca/winter1999/origins.htm
>
>
> On 9/27/07, John Costello <cos at indeterminate.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I'm looking for the likely origin of the phrase "talking through his 
>> hat",
>> alternately "talking into his hat."  I've checked online resources and
>> database collections, including Oxford references.
>>
>> Google Books does not show an entry earlier than the 1880s, though
>> accounts of Joseph Smith recount that he talked into his hat to translate
>> the Book of Mormon, which would have been before 1880.  Are there earlier
>> references?
>>
>> ----
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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