All found

Posted by Smokey Stover on August 23, 2007

In Reply to: All found posted by Adrian on August 23, 2007

: What's the history of "all found" meaning board and accommodation, as in "Ten dollars a day, all found"? Rex Stout writes: "Wait till you taste the found" i.e. food.

Find in the sense of procure goes back to Middle English or beyond. Later "all found" comes to mean "what is customary and necessary being provided," meaning primarily food, whether for a lodger or for a servant. However, find and found can be used with other direct objects. From the description in the OED, Americans prefer to leave off the "all."

I think Rex Stout was being humorous--or is that a "duh"?
SS

• All found RRC 23/August/07
  • All found Bob 24/August/07