Dakota

A bison standing in grasslands in Badlands National Park, South Dakota

3 November 2021

The states of North Dakota and South Dakota take their names from the name of an Indigenous people who live in the region. Dakhóta is the Santee name for themselves. Literally, Dakhóta means friend, a nouning of a verb meaning to be friendly, which in current, figurative use means to be Dakota, to be Sioux. Santee is part of the Siouan language group, which is spoken by Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains of what is now the United States and Canada. The linguistic nomenclature of the group can be confusing, so the relationships between the dialects are best expressed by nested bullet points.

• Central Siouan

  • Dakotan

  • Lakota (Lakhóta)

  • Western Dakota (Dakhóta)

    • Yankton

    • Yanktonai

  • Eastern Dakota (Dakhóta)

    • Santee

    • Sisseton

  • Assiniboine (Nakhóta)

  • Stoney (Nakhóta)

The Assiniboine and Stoney now live primarily in Western Canada, but historically their territory extended into what is now North Dakota. The names Dakhóta, Lakhóta, and Nakhóta are cognates, with similar meanings and usages in their respective languages.

The name first appears in English in the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804–06), whose purpose was to map the northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase, which the United States had just acquired from France. Clark’s journal entry for 31 August 1804 reads in part:

This Great Nation who the French has given the Nickname of Suouex, Call themselves Dar co tar.

Subsequently, as white settler-colonists moved into Siouan territory, they applied the name Dakota to a variety of places, towns, and counties, many of which are still in use. Dakota County, Minnesota, for instance, is a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Prior to 1858, what are now the portions of the states of North and South Dakota east of the Missouri River were part of the Minnesota Territory, and the western portions were unorganized territory. But when the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory was granted statehood that year, the western portion was organized into the Dakota Territory, which originally also included parts of what is now Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The Dakota Territory was formally organized in 1861, but the name goes back to at least 1857 when organization efforts started. From the St. Paul Daily Pioneer and Democrat of 10 November 1857:

Mass Meeting in Dakota Territory.

Pursuant to previous notice, a meeting of the settlers of the Big Sioux county was held at the House of David McBride, Esq., in Sioux Falls City, on Saturday, the 24th of October, 1857, to take into consideration the proper course to be pursued by the inhabitants of the former Territory of Minnesota, residing west of the line of the State of Minnesota, who in consequence of the State organization, are left without all civil government whatever.

[...]

On motion of Jas. W. Evans Esq., a committee, consisting of nine persons, was appointed to report to the meeting a plan of operations to be pursued by the people of Dakota Territory, to secure an early organization of the Territorial Government of said Territory.

North and South Dakota were admitted into the Union in 1889 as the thirty-ninth and fortieth states. The grant of statehood ignored the fact that by treaty, much of what was the new state of South Dakota belonged, by treaty, to the Dakota people. The settler-colonists not only stole the land, they stole the name as well.

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Sources:

Bright, William. Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 2004.

Clark, William. Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804–1806 (31 August 1804), vol. 1 of 6. Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. New York, Dodd, Mead, 1904, 132. Hathitrust Digital Archive.

Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020. Oxfordreference.com.

“Mass Meeting in Dakota Territory.” Daily Pioneer and Democrat (St. Paul, Minnesota), 10 November 1857, 2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2019, modified March 2021, s.v. Dakota, n. and adj.

Image credit: Unknown photographer, 2009. US National Park Service photo. Public domain image.

Nevada

Albert Bierstadt’s 1868 painting Among the Sierra Nevada, California. An oil on canvas landscape painting featuring a herd of deer drinking from a lake in the foreground while exaggeratingly majestic, snow-capped mountains with waterfalls rise in the background.

1 November 2021

Nevada is a state in the western United States. It takes its name from the Sierra Nevada mountains, which lie on the state’s border with California. In Spanish, Sierra Nevada simply means snow-covered mountains. It’s a rather obvious name for a mountain range, and as a result, there are a number of ranges bearing that name, in Spain, Argentina and Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and, of course, the United States.

Nevada is the home to numerous Indigenous tribes, including the Koso, Paiute, Shoshoni, Walapi, Washoe, and Ute. Languages spoken belong primarily to the Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) and Uto-Aztecan families. While it was settler-colonists who conferred the present name on the state, numerous local, Indigenous placenames are still in use. Perhaps the most famous is Tahoe, which comes from the Washoe /dá’aw/, meaning lake.

The original Sierra Nevada are in southeastern Spain. References to that mountain range appear in English by 1627. From Gabriel Richardson’s Of the State of Europe of that year:

This whole ridge is named Orospeda by Strabo. Ptolemy calleth part hereof Montem Illipulam, now the tract of the Alpuxarras. It now hath diverse names. Neere vnto the towne of Molina it is called Monte de Molina; to Cuença Monte de Cuença; to Alcaraz Sierra de Alcaraz; to Segura Monte de Segura; to Granado Sierra Nevada; to Velez Malaga the Alpuxarras; and to Ronda Sierra de Ronda.

While there are many earlier references to the Spanish and South and Central American ranges to be found in English, references to the Sierra Nevada that is now in the United States don’t appear in English-language writing until quite late. The earliest reference I have found is in a March 1845 letter by John C. Fremont, published in the Daily Union of 20 May 1845. Fremont, a U.S. Army officer, made several expeditions of exploration and later was instrumental in the United States seizing California from Mexico. Fremont writes:

Unhappily, much of what we had collected was lost by accidents of serious import to ourselves, as well as to our animals and collections. In the gorges and ridges of the Sierra Nevada, of the Alta California, we lost fourteen horses and mules, falling from rocks or precipices into the chasms of rivers, bottomless to us and to them, and one of them loaded with bales of plants collected on a line of two thousand miles of travel.

Gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in 1848, and by the next year, the clipped Nevada was being used to refer to the mountain range and the territory around it. From the Coldwater Sentinel of Michigan, 26 January 1849:

Vast quantities of lumber will be required in California for the construction of buildings, and we have no doubt, in time, the pine forests of the Nevada will supply beautiful and substantial houses for the Sandwich Islanders, Chinese, Mexicans and South American.

Moves to create a separate Nevada Territory began in 1857, as reported in Chicago’s Daily Democratic Press of 25 March of that year:

We find in a late California paper mention made of information having been received from Washington, D.C., to the effect that a bill was in preparation by Senator Douglas for the formation of a new Territory on the eastern boundary of California, to consist of all Western Utah and Northeastern New Mexico, and from the Oregon line to the Colorado River. The name intended for it is Nevada, taken from the great Sierra, which lies on its western boundary.

The Nevada Territory was officially formed in 1861, and Nevada became the thirty-sixth state in 1864.

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Sources:

Bright, William. Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 2004.

Coldwater Sentinel (Michigan), 26 January 1849, 2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020, s.v., Nevada, Sierra Nevada. Oxfordreference.com.

Fremont, John C. “‘Westward, Ho!’—Expeditions to Oregon” (March 1845). The Daily Union (Washington, DC), 20 May 1845, 3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

“Nevada Territory.” Daily Democratic Press (Chicago), 25 March 1857, 2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2003, modified March 2019, s.v. Nevadan, adj. and n.

Richardson, Gabriel. Of the State of Europe. Oxford: Henry Cripps, 1627, Book 6, 2. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Image credit: Albert Bierstadt, 1868. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Image is in the public domain as a mechanical reproduction of a public domain work of art.

mischief night, and other names

A carved jack o’ lantern that has been set on fire

30 October 2021

The night before Halloween, 30 October, is traditionally a night when children and teens play pranks, such as smashing pumpkins, throwing eggs, toilet papering trees, and the like. Sometimes though, the night becomes violent, with acts of serious vandalism and arson. The night goes by many names in various regions of the United States.

The oldest of these names would appear to be mischief night, which has its roots in the north of England. The English mischief night was originally “celebrated” on 30 April, but nowadays is usually either 30 October or 4 November, the nights before Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day, respectively. The tradition goes back to at least 1830, when the Sheffield Independent of 22 May of that year reported:

Mr. Lee, in confirmation of this statement, said that the last witness was one of his tenants, and had with many others suffered serious injuries from the proceedings of a gang of lawless boys, who had taken it into their heads that on particular occasions, such as May een, or mischief night as it was termed, they might commit the most serious depredations with impunity.

Mischief night is most often found in the northeastern US, especially in New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania. The Chester Times (Pennsylvania) of 31 October 1924 had this to say:

“Mischief Night,” it is not on the calendar of special occasions, but last night was so designated by hundreds of youngsters in the lower wards of the city, who staged a premature Halloween celebration and struck terror into the hearts of the more timid motormen on the lines of the S.P.T.C., which operate in that section, and motorists, also many businessmen who had their wares on display outside their premises.

If last nights pranks are an indication of what might be expected to happen tonight, some parts of the city will resemble a place struck by a tornado tomorrow morning. Several signs were removed last night, discarded autos placed on trolley tracks and many a housewife answered a knock at the door last night only to find that she had been fooled.

But mischief night is not the only name for the night in that region. That same issue of the Chester Times had this in an article about the neighboring town of Eddystone:

The night preceding All Hallowe’en evening is known among the juvenile population as “Devil’s Night,” but there was little disorder reported about the borough by the local police authorities.

Use of devil’s night can be found in scattered use throughout the US, but it is most often associated with southeastern Michigan and Detroit, where past devil’s nights have been particularly violent and damaging.

The demonic association is also made in the name hell night, which is in scattered use throughout the US, but is especially prevalent in New Jersey. The Asbury Park Press of 29 October 1954 had this:

Many destruction-bent youngsters have come to regard the night before Halloween as “Hell Night” Law officers emphasized that the “boys will be boys” attitude will be totally ineffective in keeping the wayward juveniles out of jail.

Sometimes the name of the night is taken from the objects that are thrown at people. Cabbage night can be found throughout the Northeast US and the Great Lakes region. The Daily State Gazette and Republican of Trenton, New Jersey had this to say on 1 November 1861:

Last night was the holiday we know as Hallow Eve, or popularly in this latitude as “Cabbage night.” We noticed sundry boys armed with cabbages.

In the North Midlands and Appalachians kernels of corn are traditional missiles, giving rise to corn night. From the Wellington Enterprise (Ohio) of 8 November 1882:

Hallow’een celebrations are a relic of the dark ages, and ought to be abolished. November 9th or “corn night” which consists of ringing door-bells and of throwing a shower of corn into the face of the one who opens them, we trust will not be a very paying business in Wellington.

Perhaps the oddest name for the evening is goosey night, which is found in northern New Jersey and New York City. Why it is called that is a mystery. Goose and goosey have long been words meaning a fool or simpleton and that may play into the name, but it is really anyone’s guess. The name is recorded in the late 1960s, but there are claims that it was in use for decades before that. From New Brunswick, New Jersey’s Daily Home News of 31 October 1969:

Call it what you will—Mischief Night, Goose Night, or Hell Night—but last night was the traditional night for youngsters to vent their mischievousness and the were out in full force armed with rocks, sticks, broken pumpkins and, of course, eggs.

The form goosey night is recorded by 1974, from a publication titled About Patterson of that year:

The mayor took little action and called this descent into chaos “a bad Goosey Night.”

These are just a few of the names for the night. Others include: damage night (especially southwestern Ohio), fox night (Michigan and Minnesota), mystery night (Black communities in New Jersey), chalk night (from the practice of defacing homes and storefronts with chalk graffiti, central Atlantic and southern New England), clothesline night (from the practice of cutting clotheslines, scattered, but mainly western US), doorbell night (from the practice of ringing doorbells and running, North and Midland), garbage-can night (from the practice of upsetting garbage cans, Inland North and North Midland), gate night (North, North Midland, southeastern New York), moving night (from the practice of removing furniture and belongs from homes, Baltimore), picket night (from the practice of knocking down picket fences, scattered), soap night (from defacing windows with soap, North and North Midland), and ticktack night (from the sound made by tapping on windows, scattered)

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Sources:

“Added Cops, Organized Parties to Curb Halloween Pranksters.” Asbury Park Evening Press, 29 October 1954, 1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), 2013, s.v. mischief night, n., and other entries.

“Eddystone.” Chester Times (Pennsylvania), 31 October 1924, 4. NewspaperArchive.com.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2002, modified September 2021, mischief, n.; second edition, 1989, s.v. goosey, n., goose, n.

“Town-Hall—Tuesday.” Sheffield Independent, 22 May 1830, 3. Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers.

“West End Youngsters Play Wild Pranks.” Chester Times (Pennsylvania), 31 October 1924, 1. NewspaperArchive.com.

“Youngsters in City Do Their Mischief.” Daily Home News (New Brunswick, NJ), 31 October 1969, 32. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Photo credit: Jan Bergander, 2015. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license (CC BY-ND 2.0).

meta

Meme of a young Keanu Reeves with an astonished look on his face and the words, “Whoah...that’s so meta”

29 October 2021

The English prefix and word meta is from the Greek μετα-. The Greek combining form is from the same Indo-European root as the English mid-. The original sense, as it was used in Mycenaean Greek, was probably “together with,” but in later use, the Greek prefix was also used to express sharing, common action, and change in place, order, or condition.

In English, meta- is often used in the sense of beyond, at a higher level. This sense arises out of misreading of the title of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, a work of ontological philosophy that contemplates such concepts as existence, causation, form, and matter. The title is not Aristotle’s but was assigned the work in the sixth century CE. The book was called Metaphysics because it was believed that Aristotle thought the proper order of instruction should be physics first and ontology second. Therefore, the original sense of metaphysics was “after physics.” But given the subject matter, the title was later interpreted as referring to a higher order, to things that were beyond the physical world, and that is the sense of the term in English.

But in recent usage, meta has come to denote things that are self-referential. In the twentieth century, the disciplines of logic and linguistics started using meta- to refer to underlying principles. For instance, in his 1953 book Linguistic Form, Charles E. Bazell wrote:

Universality of application is only one meta-criterion for the choice of criteria.

The world of computing picked up the prefix meta- in the late 1960s. Of particular note is the coining of metadata, referring to information about the data, such as the date a file was last updated. In 1969, Philip R. Bagley wrote in his Extension of Programming Language Concepts:

A second data element [...] represents data “about” the first data element. This second data element we might term a “metadata element.” Examples of such metadata elements are: an identifier, a domain ‘prescriptor’ [etc.].

And in the 1980s, the self-referential sense generalized and came into its own. In an article in the 5 September 1988 issue of the New Republic, Noam Cohen discussed meta and recorded an accurate prediction as to how it would be used in the future:

[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?] is only cashing in on America’s latest social and pop-intellectual trend: self-reference. You see it in the humor of television’s “Gary Shandling Show,” with its highly self-conscious theme song and star (who’s been known to spy on other characters in the sitcom by looking into video monitors). You see it in intensified coverage of the media by the media; last year marked the first time a Pulitzer Prize was awarded to a journalist whose beat is the press. Above all, you see it in the popularity of a once-obscure prefix, “meta,” which has been called in to describe these activities. Hence: “meta-cartoon,” the only word English has for Roger’s brief animation experiment. According to David Justice, editor for pronunciation and etymology at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “meta” currently is “the fashionable prefix.” He predicts that, like “retro,”—whose use solely as a prefix, is so, well, retro—“meta” could become independent from other words, as in, “Wow, this sentence is so meta.”

Recently, as of this writing, Facebook announced it was changing its corporate name to Meta. But, like most things Facebook does, it is not the first to do them. Not only is it just the latest in a long line of corporations that changed their names in the midst of scandal, hoping their bad reputation would be left behind with the name, but in 2011, the basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace. He would later change his name again to Metta Sandiford-Artest. Like Facebook, Sandiford-Artest had a reputation for bad behavior—he holds the record for the longest suspension for on-court behavior, 86 games.

But I must note that Sandiford-Artest’s name, while pronounced the same, is not the same word as meta. Metta is a Pali word meaning benevolence, amity.

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Sources:

American Heritage Dictionary Indo-European Roots Appendix, 2020, s.v. me-2.

Cohen, Noam. “Meta-Musings.” The New Republic, 5 September 1988, 17. ProQuest Central.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, December 2001, modified March 2021, s.v. meta-, prefix; modified December 2020, metaphysic, n.1, metaphysics, n.; modified June 2020, s.v. meta, adj., adv., and n.3.

Image credit: memegenerator.net.

shark

A 1569 broadside advertisement for a large specimen of shark that was on display in London in June of that year. An anatomically incorrect drawing of a shark. The text of the broadside is in the entry below.

27 October 2021

The origin of the word shark is a mystery. It was in use by sailors in the fifteenth century and entered into the general vocabulary by the mid sixteenth century, but where and from what language the sailors acquired the word is just not known.

Thomas Beckington, secretary to King Henry VI and Bishop of Bath and Wells, was the first known Englishman to record the word shark. He used it in the 11 July 1442 entry in his journal, which is written in Latin:

In mare contigebat le calm, et circiter horam vijam in sero per æstimationem navem sequebatur piscis vocatus le Shark, qui quidem piscis percutiebatur bis cum uno harpingyren et recessit; quibus vero percussionibus non obstantibus incessanter navem sequebatur; et tunc magister navis cum dicto ferro latera ejus penetravit.

(It happened in a calm sea, and late in the day, at about the seventh hour by estimation, a fish called the shark gave chase to the ship, which indeed was struck twice with one harpoon and it retreated; which truly, notwithstanding the blows, incessantly pursued the ship, until the master of the ship pierced its sides with the said iron.)

Since the definite article le does not exist in classical Latin and given that Beckington was crossing to Bordeaux, one might think the word has a French origin. But le is common in medieval Anglo-Latin. There is nothing here that tells us of the word’s origin, except that the fish was being called that by sailors in 1442. And since sailors on board a ship might come from an assortment of countries, we can’t even draw a conclusion about their nationality or native language.

The Beckington use, however, is an isolated appearance. Shark does not start to be used in print with any frequency until more than a century later, indicating that it was sailor jargon that had not yet penetrated into the general vocabulary.

The next appearance of shark in English is in a broadside advertisement for a large specimen of the fish that was on display in London in June 1559:

The True Discription of this Marueilous Straunge Fishe, whiche was taken on Thursday was sennight, the xvj. day of June, this present month, in the yeare of our Lord God, M.D.lxix.

A declaration of the taking of this straunge Fishe, with the lengthe and bredth, &c.

DOOING you to vnderstande that on Thursdaye, the xyj. daye of this present month of June, in the yeare of our Lord God M.D.lxix. this straunge fishe was taken betweene Callis and Douer, by sertayne English fissher-men whych were a fyshynge for mackrell. And this straunge and merueylous fyshe, folowynge after the scooles of mackrell, came rushinge in to the fisher-mens netts, and brake and tore their nettes marueilouslie, in such sorte, that at the fyrst they weare muche amased therat, and marueiled what it should bee that kept suche a sturr with their netts, for they were verie much harmed by it with breking and spoyling their netts.

And then they, seing and perceiuyng that the netts wold not serue, by reason of the greatnes of this straung fishe, then they with such instruements, ingins, and thinges that they had, made such shift that they tooke this straung fishe. And vppon Fridaye, the morowe after, brought it vpp to Billyngesgate in London, whyche was the xvij. daye of June, and ther it was seene and vewid of manie, which marueiled much at the straungnes of it; for here hath neuer the lyke of it ben seene: and on Saterdaye, being the xviij. daye, sertayne fishe-mongers in New Fishstreat agreeid with them that caught it, for and in consideracion of the harme whych they receiued by spoylinge of ther netts, and for their paines, to haue this straunge ; fishe. And hauinge it, did open it and flaied of the skinn, and saued it hole. And, adiudging the meat of it to be good, broyled a peece and tafted of hit, and it looked whit like veale when it was broiled, and was good and sauerie (though sumwhat straung) in the eating, and then they sold of it that same Saterdaye to suche as would buy of the same, and they themselues did bake of it, and eate it for daintie ; and for the more sertaintie and opening of the truth, the good men of the Castle and the Kinges Head in new Fishstreat did bui a great deale and bakte of it, and this is moste true.

The straunge fishe is in length xvij. foote and iij. foote broad, and in compas about the bodie vj. foote; and is round snowted, short headdid, hauing iij. ranckes of teeth on eyther iawe, maruaylous sharpe and very short, ij. eyes growing neare his shout, and as big as a horses eyes, and his hart as big as an oxes hart, and likewyse his liuer and lightes bige as an oxes; but all the garbidge that was in hys bellie besides would haue gone into a felt hat. Also ix. finns, and ij. of the formost bee iij. quarters of a yeard longe from the body, and a verie big one on the fore parte of his backe, blackish on the backe, and a litle whitishe on the belly, a slender tayle, and had but one bone, and that was a great rydge-bone, runninge a-longe his backe from the head vnto the tayle, and had great force in his tayle when he was in the water. Also it hath v. gills of eache side of the head, shoing white. There is no proper name for it that I knowe, but that sertayne men of Captain Haukinses doth call it a sharke. And it is to bee seene in London, at the Red Lyon in Fletestreete.

Finis, quod C.R.

Imprynted at London, in Fleetstreate, beneathe the Conduit, at the signe of Saint John Euangelist, by Thomas Colwell.

The Oxford English Dictionary, in an older entry, errs in stating the fish was captured and brought back by John Hawkins’s expedition. The broadside clearly states that the shark had been captured by mackerel fishermen that very June. Hawkins’s third voyage had ended several months earlier, in January 1568/69. The only connection to Hawkins is that a sailor from his expedition had identified the fish caught by the mackerel-men as a shark.

This display of the shark was quite famous in its day. In The Tempest (1611), Shakespeare apparently alludes to it and to the exhibition of Indigenous people captured in the Americas and brought back to England for profit. In scene 2.2, Trinculo comes upon the sleeping Caliban and discusses taking him back to London and exhibiting him for money:

What haue we here, a man or a fish? dead or aliue? a fish, hee smels like a fish: a very ancient and fish-like smell: a kinde of, not of the newest poore-John: a strange fish: were I in England now (as I once was) and had but this fish painted; not a holiday-foole there but would giue a peece of siluer: there, would this Monster, make a man: any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not giue a doit to relieue a lame Beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.

The application of shark to predatory humans comes first as a verb. The verb to shark appears in Sir Thomas More, an Elizabethan play. The play is from c.1592, with later revisions. In the past mistakenly attributed to Shakespeare, the play is the product of a collaborative effort. The manuscript is composed by six different hands, and attribution of authorship is contentious. It may, however, been originally composed by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, and later, after 1600, revised by Thomas Heywood and Thomas Dekker. The fifth hand is that of a theater scribe who seems to have supervised the revision process but was apparently not a substantial contributor to original text. The sixth hand, contributing a single scene, has tenuously been identified as Shakespeare’s, but if it is his, it’s unclear whether the scene he contributed was to the original text or the revision. The passage with shark, which is not in the scene thought to be by Shakespeare, is as follows:

What had you gott? I’le tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand shoold prevayle,
How ordere shoold be quelld; and by this patterne
Not on of you shoold lyve an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With sealf same hand, sealf resons, and sealf right,
Woold shark on you, and men lyke ravenous fishes
Woold feed on on another.

The use of the noun shark to refer to a predatory human is from the same period and also from the stage. This sense first appears in the dramatis personae of Ben Jonson’s 1600 play The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man Out of his Humour. Jonson uses the phrase thredbare shark to describe a character named Shift:

SHIFT.

A Thredbare Sharke. One that neuer was Soldior, yet liues vpon lendings. His profession is skeldring and odling, his Banke Poules, and his Ware-house Pict-hatch. Takes vp single Testons vpon Oths till dooms day. Fals vnder Executions of three shillings, & enters into fiue groat Bonds. He way-layes the reports of seruices, and cons them without booke, damming himselfe be came new from them, when all the while hee was taking the diet in a bawdie house, or lay pawn'd in his chamber for rent and victuals. Hee is of that admirable and happie Memorie, that hee will salute one for an old acquaintance, that hee neuer saw in his life before. Hee vsurps vpon Cheats, Quarrels, & Robberies, which he neuer did, only to get him a name. His cheef exercises are taking the Whiffe, squiring a Cocatrice, and making priuie searches for Imparters.

The use of the shark to refer to people was also probably influenced by the German Schurke, meaning a cheat or scoundrel. The passage in Sir Thomas More clearly refers to the fish, but this appearance could be a double entendre, combining both the predatory fish and scoundrel meanings.

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Sources:

Beckington, Thomas. “Journal of Thomas Bekynton to Bordeaux, 11 July 1442.” Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton, vol. 2 of 2. George Williams, ed. Memorials of the Reign of King Henry VI. London: Longman, et al. 1872, 184. HathiTrust Digital Archive. Oxford, Ashmolean Musuem MS 789.

Dyce, Alexander, ed. Sir Thomas More. Shakespeare Society 23. London: Frederick Shoberl, Jr., 1844, 2.4, 27. HathiTrust Digital Archive. London, British Library, Harley MS 7368.

Jonson, Ben. The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man Out of his Humour. London: Adam Islip for William Holme, 1600. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Middle English Dictionary, 2019, s.v. shark, n.

Munday, Anthony, et al. Sir Thomas More. John Jowett, ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Methuen Drama, 2011, 8–29, 189–90, and 415–60.

Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. shark, n.1, shark, n.2, shark, v.1.

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest, 2.2. Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (First Folio, Brandeis University). London: Isaac Jaggrd and Edward Blount, 1623, 9.

The True Discription of this Marueilous Straunge Fishe. London: Thomas Colwell, 1569. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Image credit: 1569, Thomas Colwell, publisher. Public domain image.