Cardsharp vs. card shark
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010I’m filing this one under Learn Something New Every Day.
You’ve heard of the crafty guy or gal who habitually cheats at card games, correct? And you’ve also heard of that same sneaky hustler referred to as a card shark, yes?
You’ve been had.
Bet you can't guess which one (or two? three? four?) of these delightful cherubs is a true cardsharp (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patricksarahdanajay/3460342884)
That person — the one with the face of stone and a smile a mile wide, the one who ended up leaving with your hard-earned but easily sucked-away cash — is a cardsharp. Not a card shark.
I’d say that the card shark is extinct, except that it never existed; the correct term, dating back to the 1850s, has always been cardsharp (one word). And that, my friends, is no fish tale.
Happy trails!
SAK
