Editing Card sharp (section)

==Etymology and usage==
[[File:Pęczarski Card-sharpers.jpg|thumb|''Card-sharpers by Candlelight'' (1845) by Feliks Pęczarski, [[National Museum in Warsaw]] ]]
According to the prevailing [[Etymology|etymological]] theory, the term "shark", originally meaning "parasite" or "one who preys upon others"{{xref|(cf. [[loan shark]]),}} derives from [[German language|German]] ''{{lang|de|Schorke}}'' or ''{{lang|de|Schurke}}'' ('rogue' or 'rascal'), as did the English word "shirk&#91;er&#93;". "Sharp" developed in the 17th century from this meaning of "shark" (as apparently did the use of "shark" as a name for the fish), but the phrase "card sharp" predates the variant "card shark".<ref name="EtymOnline1">{{Cite web |title=Online Etymology Dictionary search results |work=EtymOnline.com |url=http://www.etymonline.com/ |last=Harper |first=Douglas |date=2001 |access-date=2007-07-08 |at=entries "shark" & "sharp" |archive-date=2007-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713125946/http://www.etymonline.com/ |url-status=live }} &ndash; gives the negative meaning only, for both</ref><ref name="OxEnc1">{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary |editor-last1=Hawkins |editor-first1=Joyce M. |editor-last2=Allen |editor-first2=Robert |date=1991 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=New York |page=1334 |isbn=0-19-861248-6}} &ndash; gives only the negative meaning for both; labels negative verb "to sharp" archaic.</ref><ref name="NDAS1">{{Cite book |title=New Dictionary of American Slang |editor-last=Chapman |editor-first=Robert L. |date=1983 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |page=380}} &ndash; gives both positive and negative meanings for both "shark" and "sharp", labels them synonymous in this context, and indicates that positive sense of "shark" arose much later than the negative meaning, and later than it did for "sharp"</ref><ref name="Origins1">{{Cite book |title=Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English |last=Partridge |first=Eric |date=1983 |publisher=Greenwich House |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/originsshortetym0000part/page/614 614] |isbn=0-517-41425-2 |url= https://archive.org/details/originsshortetym0000part/page/614}} &ndash; gives only negative meaning for "shark", and gives "sharper" as synonymous, without addressing the shorter form "sharp"</ref><ref name="WebsterUnabridged1">{{Cite book |title=Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language |edition=Unabridged |editor-last=McKechnie |editor-first=Jean L. |date=1971 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |pages=274, 1668 |isbn=0-671-41819-X}} &ndash; gives both meanings for both terms and even for the obsolete "sharker", but provides only the swindler definition for "card sharp" and both definitions for the "card shark" version, thus contradicting itself at the "sharp" entry</ref> The original connotation was negative, meaning "swindler" or "cheat", regardless of spelling, with the more positive connotations of "expert" or "skilled player" arising later, and not supplanting the negative ones.<ref name="EtymOnline1" /><ref name="NDAS1" /><ref name="OxEtym1">{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology |editor-last=Onions |editor-first=C. T. |date=1994 |publisher=Oxford at the Clarendon Press |location=New York |pages=817 |isbn=0-19-861112-9}} &ndash; gives only the negative meaning for both "shark" and "sharp"</ref><ref name="NewGem1">{{Cite book | title=New Gem Dictionary of the English Language |editor-last1=Weekley |editor-first1=Ernest |editor-last2=Scott |editor-first2=Anne |date=1911 |publisher=Collins |location=London |pages=418}} &ndash; current around time that "shark" gained a positive sense, gives only negative meaning for both</ref> "Card sharp" and "card shark" are synonymous,<ref name="OxEnc1" /><ref name="NDAS1" /><ref name="WebsterUnabridged1" /><ref name="Roget21CT1">{{Cite book |title=Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus in Dictionary Form |edition=2nd  |editor-last=Kipfer |editor-first=Barabara Ann |editor2=Princeton Language Institute |date=1999 |publisher=Dell Publishing |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/rogets21stcent1999kipf/page/306 306, 786] |isbn=0-440-23513-8 |url= https://archive.org/details/rogets21stcent1999kipf/page/306}} &ndash; gives both meanings for both</ref><ref name="Dictionary.com1">{{Cite web |title=Search results |at="sharp" dfn. 36 & 37, and "shark" dfn. 2-1 & 2-2 |date=2007 |access-date=2007-07-08 |work=Dictionary.Reference com Unabridged |edition=v1.1 |publisher=Lexico Publishing Group |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/ |archive-date=2016-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305211008/http://dictionary.reference.com/ |url-status=live }} &ndash; gives both meanings for both, with negative meaning being primary for both, positive meanings informal</ref> although American English is somewhat, but informally, beginning to favor "shark" as a positive term versus "sharp" as a negative one.<ref name="WebsterUnabridged1" /><ref name="WebsterII1">{{Cite book |title=Webster's II: New Riverside Dictionary |editor-last=Soukhanov |editor-first=Anne H. |date=1994 |publisher=Riverside Pub. Co. |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/webstersiinewriv1984rive/page/1072 1072] |isbn=0-395-33957-X |url=https://archive.org/details/webstersiinewriv1984rive/page/1072}} &ndash; gives both for "shark", only negative for "sharp" and "sharper"</ref><ref name="WebsterNWA1">{{Cite book |title=Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language |editor-last=Guralnik |editor-first=David B.  |date=1982 |publisher=Warner Books |location=New York |edition=Revised |page=[https://archive.org/details/webstersnewworld1987gura/page/547 547] |isbn=0-446-31450-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/webstersnewworld1987gura/page/547}} &ndash; gives both for "shark", only negative for "sharp"</ref> (However, not ''all'' American dictionaries agree with this,<ref name="NDAS1" /> and some suggest the opposite.<ref name="AHD1">{{Cite web |title=American Heritage Dictionary of the English language |edition=online 4th |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |date=2006 |access-date=2007-07-08 |work=Bartleby.com |at="sharp" dfn. noun 3, and "shark" dfn. noun 2 |url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/ |archive-date=2008-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220074821/http://www.bartleby.com/61/ |url-status=live }} &ndash; gives both meanings for both, with positive being primary for "sharp" but negative for "shark"</ref>)

Phrasefinder puts "card sharp" (or "-sharper") as the slightly earlier usage, with an 1859 citation for "card-sharper" and "card-sharp" in both Britain and in the US, while "card-shark" is cited to 1893 in the US.<ref>Martin, Gary. [https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/card-sharp.html "The Meaning and Origin of the Expression: Card-sharp"], ''The Phrase Finder''. Retrieved 30 Sept. 2021.</ref>