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Tangential question: when did using the term sucker to describe a gullible person start? I would have guessed it would be a lot more recent than 1947. Now I am
by smnrchrds 9y ago
Tangential question: when did using the term sucker to describe a gullible person start? I would have guessed it would be a lot more recent than 1947. Now I am curious.
- steanne 9y ago"young mammal before it is weaned," late 14c., agent noun from suck. Slang meaning "person who is easily deceived" is first attested 1836, American English, on notion of naivete; the verb in this sense is from 1939. But another theory traces the slang meaning to the fish called a sucker (1753), on the notion of being easy to catch in their annual migrations. Meaning "lollipop" is from 1823. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sucker http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sucker