A shady deal

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 11, 2009 at 03:36

In Reply to: A shady deal posted by Peter on April 10, 2009 at 09:27:

: Phrase origin for "a shady deal"? I heard it that the phrase originates from the land rush days of the American Frontier. Clearing land for farming was extremely arduous, and therefore cleared land was sold at a premium. "a shady deal" was one where the plot sold was supposed to have been cleared, but was not. Hmm. Could be, but sounds fishy to me. Any ideas?

Peter, the origin for "shady deal" that you report sounds fishy to me, too, not to say shady. It's ingenious, but comletely unknown to the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary. They give two uses of shady that seem related, although the second is the one for shady deals.

s.v. shady: "5. colloq. a. Of questionable merit or prospects of success; uncertain, unreliable. [?Orig. university slang.]

[exmples:] "1848 CLOUGH Bothie i. 24 The Tutor..Shady in Latin, said Lindsay, but topping in plays and Aldrich. 1858 BP. FRASER in Hughes Life 97 We have twenty-one candidates for the Ireland{em}a shady lot. 1858 R. S. SURTEES Ask Mamma XXV. 95 What looks very well one way may look very shady the other. . . ."

"b. Not bearing investigation, of a nature or character unable to bear the light; disreputable.

[examples:]"1862 Sat. Rev. 8 Feb. 156 Balls and bazaars continue to be the refuge of institutions, whether charitable or religious, whose balance-sheets are 'shady'. 1873 Punch 25 Oct. 167/2 Have always heard that 'shady people' went to Boulogne. 1882 W. BALLANTINE Exper. iv. 42, I was entrusted with a brief by a rather shady attorney. 1894 SIR E. SULLIVAN Woman 52 A Roman lady of extraordinary beauty and somewhat shady character. . . ."

Obviously these shady people with their shady deals are characters and deals that live in the shadows, and can't bear the scrutiny of daylight.
SS