| Author |
Message |
Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:27 pm
Post subject: Re: "Make the nut" |
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On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:51:10 +0100, John Dean wrote:
| Quote: | I first encountered it in the works of my old pal George V Higgins,
notably in "The Digger's Game". Here's a scene where the Digger is
explaining to his brother, the priest, how he lost 18,000 dollars in Las
Vegas. He has 2,000 dollars and doesn't know whether to use it paying
interest for a while (at 400 bucks a week - the 'vig') or reducing the
capital (the 'nut'):
"Four hundred a week," the Digger said. "I got two grand. That's
either vig plus sixteen off the nut, or it's five weeks to raise the
eighteen."
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Can anyone give the origin of "vig"? The first time I can recalling coming
across it was in the film "Get Shorty".
| Quote: | "1972 Publishers' Weekly
14 Feb. 60/1 He submitted a strong script that led Fox to substitute
color film and wide screen for black-and-white and the conventional
small-screen ratio, and to raise the nut to $400,000."
|
Is it just me, or is the phrasing "substitute X for Y" ambiguous?
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:00 pm
Post subject: Re: "Make the nut" |
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| Quote: | On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:51:10 +0100, John Dean wrote:
"Four hundred a week," the Digger said. "I got two grand. That's
either vig plus sixteen off the nut, or it's five weeks to raise the
eighteen."
Can anyone give the origin of "vig"? The first time I can recalling
coming
across it was in the film "Get Shorty".
|
Vig = vigorish is US criminal slang for the interest
charged on a loan by a shylock (moneylender.) Its
absence from Partridge's Dictionary of the Underworld
suggests it is a US coinage.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:37 pm
Post subject: Re: "Make the nut" |
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On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:00:02 -0400, Don Phillipson wrote:
| Quote: | On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:51:10 +0100, John Dean wrote:
"Four hundred a week," the Digger said. "I got two grand. That's
either vig plus sixteen off the nut, or it's five weeks to raise the
eighteen."
Can anyone give the origin of "vig"? The first time I can recalling
coming
across it was in the film "Get Shorty".
Vig = vigorish is US criminal slang for the interest
charged on a loan by a shylock (moneylender.) Its
absence from Partridge's Dictionary of the Underworld
suggests it is a US coinage.
|
A quick Google found me:
"The vig is a fairly common term in gambling circles. Short for vigorish,
it means "a charge paid on a bet, as to a bookie." [..] A related sense
is "interest paid to a loanshark." Vigorish, which is first found in
America just past the turn of the [last] century, is probably a borrowing
of a Russian or Ukranian word meaning "profit" or "winnings"; vig itself is
a more recent shortening."
[http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19960503]
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
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John Dean
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:16 pm
Post subject: Re: "Make the nut" |
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Don Phillipson wrote:
| Quote: | On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:51:10 +0100, John Dean wrote:
"Four hundred a week," the Digger said. "I got two grand. That's
either vig plus sixteen off the nut, or it's five weeks to raise the
eighteen."
Can anyone give the origin of "vig"? The first time I can recalling
coming across it was in the film "Get Shorty".
Vig = vigorish is US criminal slang for the interest
charged on a loan by a shylock (moneylender.) Its
absence from Partridge's Dictionary of the Underworld
suggests it is a US coinage.
|
It's not in his Dic of Slang and Unc Eng either. It *is* in Jonathan
Green's Cassell Dic of S where he places it in 1910 US deriving from
"[?Yid./Rus.vyigrysh, profit, winnings]"
Also in OED as "vigorish":
"Also viggerish, etc. [prob. f. Yiddish, ad. Russ. vyigrysh gain,
winnings.]
The percentage deducted by the organizers of a game from the winnings
of a gambler. Also, the rate of interest upon a usurious loan. Also
transf. and fig.
1912 A. H. Lewis Apaches of N. York 51 Stuss licks up+a round full
fifth of all the East side earns, and to viggresh should be given the
black glory thereof. 1943 N.Y. Times Mag. 31 Oct. 2/4, I have heard the
word 'viggerish' used for the cut the house takes in dice games. 1959
R. Condon Manchurian Candidate xv. 201 Eugénie Rose Cheyney+loved Marco.
That fact gave Marco a large edge, tantamount to wiping out the house
percentage in banker's craps. No matter what the action, that is a lot
of vigorish to have going for anybody. " and so on.
--
John Dean
Oxford |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 2:09 am
Post subject: Re: "Make the nut" |
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Publishers' Weekly:
| Quote: | 14 Feb. 60/1 He submitted a strong script that led Fox to substitute
color film and wide screen for black-and-white and the conventional
small-screen ratio, and to raise the nut to $400,000."
|
Andrew Gwilliam:
| Quote: | Is it just me, or is the phrasing "substitute X for Y" ambiguous?
|
Just you.
--
Mark Brader "People who think for a living have always
Toronto been especially prone to confuse thinking
msb@vex.net with living." -- G. L. Sicherman |
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Andrew Gwilliam
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 2:28 am
Post subject: Re: "Make the nut" |
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On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 20:09:36 -0000, Mark Brader wrote:
| Quote: | Publishers' Weekly:
14 Feb. 60/1 He submitted a strong script that led Fox to substitute
color film and wide screen for black-and-white and the conventional
small-screen ratio, and to raise the nut to $400,000."
Andrew Gwilliam:
Is it just me, or is the phrasing "substitute X for Y" ambiguous?
Just you.
|
Oh, good (I think)!
--
Andrew Gwilliam
To email me, replace "bottomless_pit" with "silverhelm" |
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LoveOldeFlorida
Joined: 15 Jan 2009
Posts: 1
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 7:07 pm
Post subject: Make the nut |
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The term comes from the days when traveling medicine shows, circuses, etc. would play small towns. The show people would charge livery services, food, etc. at local businesses.
Sometimes (probably more often than not) the shows would leave town in the middle of the night without paying their expenses.
So began a practice where the sheriff would visit the show folks and confiscate the nut off one of the wagon wheels so they couldn't leave town without paying their debts. When they paid up they got the nut back.
Thus the term "making the nut" meant literally making enough money to cover the expenses and get the nut back so they could leave town.
_________________
"Among my services I discovered, of my own cost and charge, the island of Florida, and others in its district, which are not mentioned as being small and useless."
--Juan Ponce de Leon in a letter to Charles V |
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