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#171452 - 11/19/07 10:53 AM Pinchbeck
midimil Offline
stranger

Registered: 11/19/07
Posts: 1
I was always intrigued by the line from the song "Ya Got Trouble" from the musical "The Music Man" that went like this: "Well the next thing you know your son is playing for money in a pinchback suit..."

I always assumed that was "pinchback" connoted a style of tailoring, perhaps with pleats on the back of the jacket. Maybe the word, however, was actually "pinchbeck," as in a fabric that was some sort of counterfeit of a more expensive fabric.

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#171453 - 11/19/07 11:11 AM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: midimil]
tsuwm Online confused
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 10464
Loc: this too shall pass
pinch-back over pinchbeck.

-joe (six to nothin') friday

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#171454 - 11/19/07 12:39 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: tsuwm]
Buffalo Shrdlu Offline
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Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
Originally Posted By: tsuwm
pinch-back over pinchbeck.

-joe (six to nothin') friday


yeahbut®
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#171455 - 11/19/07 12:54 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
BranShea Offline
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Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 5249
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Webster online sure has a lot of synonyms

Deception: Untrue; mock, sham, make-believe, counterfeit, snide, pseudo, spurious, supposititious, so-called, pretended, feigned, trumped up, bogus, scamped, fraudulent, tricky, factitious;bastard; surreptitious, illegitimate, contraband, adulterated, sophisticated; unsound, rotten at the core; colorable; disguised; meretricious, tinsel, pinchbeck, plated; catchpenny; Brummagem.

Ornament: Finery, frippery, gewgaw, gimcrack, tinsel, spangle, clinquant, pinchbeck, paste; excess of ornament; (vulgarity); gaud, pride.



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#171456 - 11/19/07 01:33 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: BranShea]
Buffalo Shrdlu Offline
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Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
looking up both pinchback and pinchbeck, it seems to me the word in the song would/should be pinchbEck:

adjective - appearing valuable, but actually cheap or tawdry.

though perhaps it's not.


Edited by etaoin (11/19/07 01:35 PM)
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#171458 - 11/19/07 03:42 PM Re: Pinchb[e/a]ck Trouble [Re: tsuwm]
Aramis Offline
addict

Registered: 05/17/05
Posts: 456
Loc: SE US
May want to consider that source includes "three-reail billiard shot". So many posted lyrics are flawed, as if recorded in text from listening to the selection.
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#171459 - 11/19/07 03:47 PM Re: Pinchb[e/a]ck Trouble [Re: Aramis]
Buffalo Shrdlu Offline
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Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
Originally Posted By: Aramis
May want to consider that source includes "three-reail billiard shot". So many posted lyrics are flawed, as if recorded in text from listening to the selection.


hence my yeahbut®.
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#171464 - 11/19/07 04:53 PM Re: Pinchb[e/a]ck Trouble [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
tsuwm Online confused
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hence my "six to nothin'" notation; to wit, try googling "for money in a pinchback suit" (or pinch back / pinch-back) vs. the alternative. the "s are important.

of course, everyone could have it wrong.

-ron o.

edit: there is one(1) hit for pinchbeck -- it seems to be from an NPR radio transcript, which you can buy.


Edited by tsuwm (11/19/07 05:07 PM)
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#171467 - 11/19/07 05:41 PM Re: Pinchb[e/a]ck Trouble [Re: tsuwm]
Buffalo Shrdlu Offline
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Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
good stuff from WWW: pinchbeck

and t, that's what I figured you meant.
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#174227 - 03/05/08 01:28 AM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: midimil]
The Pook Offline
old hand

Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
Pinchbeck is a metal alloy. It is used for things like photo frames. Its main use was in the 19th century for the preserver matts and frames around daguerreotypes and ambrotypes. When used in this context in America it is called Preserver. Pinchbeck is its British name.

Here is an example of a Pinchbeck preserver frame from my daguerreotype collection:


Edited by The Pook (03/05/08 01:32 AM)
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#174258 - 03/05/08 06:21 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: The Pook]
Zed Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 08/27/02
Posts: 2154
Loc: British Columbia, Canada
The frame is great. Is he a relative?

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#174261 - 03/05/08 07:14 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: Zed]
Buffalo Shrdlu Offline
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Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
I think it's Severus Snape.
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#174265 - 03/05/08 09:36 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
The Pook Offline
old hand

Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
Originally Posted By: etaoin
I think it's Severus Snape.

So did I! That's what I captioned it with on my dating photos page for 1840-1860 - Dating Photos 1840s-1860

Originally Posted By: Zed
is it a relative?

Sadly I don't have any daguerreotypes of relatives. I have no idea who it is. I bought him on ebay (where else?). The oldest photos of relatives I have only go back to the 1860s and are collodion prints on paper.

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#176434 - 04/27/08 06:54 PM Re: Pinchbeck [Re: The Pook]
tsuwm Online confused
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 10464
Loc: this too shall pass
I bubble this thread up today because I opened Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl last night and discovered this line: "For a few years, I flourished in the hectic hothouse and pinchbeck glitter of the "roaring eighties."

ol' Daniel must have really gloried in that usage.

-joe (gaudy) friday

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