Well attestedNamed from the place
Chicago typewriter
noun · first attested 1920s
The army would not buy it, so the name came from the people who did.
A Thompson submachine gun.
41.8819°N -87.6278°W · Q1297
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1920s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Chicago
- In English
Chicago typewriter
The Thompson reached the market just after the First World War and found few military buyers, but Prohibition-era Chicago gangs bought it freely and gave it a family of nicknames. The rattle of its fire suggested a typing pool. Chicago lightning meant gunfire and a Chicago overcoat meant a coffin.
Also pinned to Chicago
3 more from the same place
Chicago BoyA 1950s student exchange put Chicago economics into a Chilean junta's cabinet.ChicagoChicago overcoatRaymond Chandler put it in print in 1939, and it has been gangster shorthand ever since.ChicagoChisoxA nickname built on a nickname: the White Sox were already a headline writer's abbreviation.Chicago
United States
All 153 entries 149 more words from United States
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