The origin of "the lucky strike"

[Tvska]

I was looking for the origin of the phrase and the only thing I've found was
some gossip that it was coined during the Vietnam War. A lucky strike was
supposedly an accurately-aimed shot. Could anyone help me with this one
please?

Tvska

[Don Phillipson]

"Tvska" <tv...@wp.pl> wrote in message news:a150vh$e3m$1...@pingwin.acn.pl...

1. This American phrase probably dates
from mining in the 19th century, when
people used strike = discovery (of gold,
silver, copper, etc.)
2. From approx. 1920 to 1970 a common
US cigarette brand was named Lucky Strike.

--
Donald Phillipson
dphil...@trytel.com
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
613 822 0734

[Brian Wickham]

And in my era (b. 1942) I have never heard the term used for anything
but the cigarette brand. Some similar phrases would be "a lucky
shot" or "a stroke of luck".

Brian Wickham
NYC

[Raymond S. Wise]

"Tvska" <tv...@wp.pl> wrote in message news:<a150vh$e3m$1...@pingwin.acn.pl>...

Such a shot would be due to skill, not luck. "Lucky strike" likely
comes from gold prospecting. I presume that originally it involved
actually hitting into rock with a pickax and seeing the glint of gold.
A minor who thus found a large vein of gold-containing ore would have
made a "lucky strike." Some skill was involved in gold prospecting,
but it was also very much a question of luck whether one became rich.

It must go back a long time, based upon the brand name "Lucky Strike"
for tobacco products. The following is from the Internet site of the
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company:

From
http://www.brownandwilliamson.com/index_sub2.cfm?Page=/BWT/Index.cfm%3FID%3D214%26Sect%3D4

[quote]

1853--First marketed as a smoking mixture by R.A. Patterson in
Richmond, Virginia.

1916--Introduced as a finished cigarette in a dark green pack by The
American Tobacco Company.

[end quote]

Given that first date, my guess is that "lucky strike" as a miner's
term goes back at least as far as the California Gold Rush of 1849.

--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

[masakim]

Don Phillipson wrote:

>
> Tvska wrote:
>
>> I was looking for the origin of the phrase and the only thing I've
>> found was some gossip that it was coined during the Vietnam War.
>> A lucky strike was supposedly an accurately-aimed shot.
>> Could anyone help me with this one

> 1. This American phrase probably dates
> from mining in the 19th century, when
> people used strike = discovery (of gold,
> silver, copper, etc.)

The bed, as far as it has been prospected, is about two feet in
thickness, and in all likelihood will prove a "lucky strike" to the
fortunate discoverers. (_Shasta Courier_ [Redding, California], July
2, 1853)

> 2. From approx. 1920 to 1970 a common
> US cigarette brand was named Lucky Strike.

Lucky Strike (cigarettes by American Tobacco Co.) The name was
originally used in 1856 by Dr R.A. Patterson of Richmond, Virginia,
for a sliced plug tobacco. The time was that of the Gold Rush, so a
'lucky strike' was what all prospectors sought. The American Tobacco
Co. reintroduced the name for their blended tobacco in 1916 and
cigarettes in 1917 - the latter in answer to Reynolds's _Camel_.
(Adrian Room, _NTC's Dictionary of Trade Name Origins_, 1982)

Regards,
masakim

[Tvska]

Thank you all very much.

Tvska

[meirman]

In alt.english.usage on Fri, 4 Jan 2002 20:49:04 +0100 "Tvska"
<tv...@wp.pl> posted:

>I was looking for the origin of the phrase and the only thing I've found was
>some gossip that it was coined during the Vietnam War.

(Without doing any research) Hardly. L.S.M.F.T. "Lucky Strike means
fine tobacco." That goes back to the 50's that I recall and probably
decades earlier. And since it is not really descriptive of
cigarettes, it's pretty clear that it was phrase they hooked onto,
sort of as a pun (referring to striking a match in their case) as a
brand name for their cigarette.

I would guess it goes back to 1849 and the '50's, and refers to gold
mining. Or maybe it referred to oil drilling. That might be 20th
century. Some people would strike gold or oil and some wouldn't. The
ones who did were lucky. It was a lucky strike.

> A lucky strike was
>supposedly an accurately-aimed shot. Could anyone help me with this one
>please?
>
>Tvska
>

Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 17 years

[Howard G Walker]

Listed in Roget's:
382.7 mining
487.1 Discovery
726.3 good fortune
In my own experience: With extraordinary accuracy, and usually spoken enviously.

Possibly used when:
The grapeshot from the British "Rainbow," a 44-gun frigate, tore away the rigging
of the "Hancock," the fastest and largest sailing frigate ever built by the
Americans.
"That was a lucky shot!" shouted the enraged and grief-stricken Captain Manley.

Or when:
The French knight struggled to withdraw the longbowman's arrow, he screamed,
"That was a lucky shot!"

luck - 15c. from M.Du. luc, shortening of gheluc "happiness, good fortune," of
unknown origin. Perhaps first borrowed in Eng. as a gambling term.
[When shooting dice: "That was a lucky shot?"]
http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/l2etym.htm

Jessy Randall and Wendy Woloson ("Assing Around, XXIV/2) may be interested in an
additional use of the word. In poolrooms in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn,
New York, around 1950, assy meant 'lucky,' as in sinking a lucky shot. I don't
know why.
http://www.verbatimmag.com/Sum99.html

TribalWar.Com
... of Dueling (Open) Written by Friendly Etymology: Middle English, from
Medieval Latinduellum ... say, "Hehe I got a lucky shot!!!" after some one
compliments you ...
www.tribalwar.com/soap/index.php?articleid=16 - 36k - Cached - Similar pages
[This page wouldn’t display.]

If you strike it lucky/Br and Aus also strike lucky, you suddenly have a lot of
unexpected luck.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/cmd_search.asp

strike it lucky British, American & Australian, British & Australian strike lucky

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=lucky*2+0

[Brian Wickham]

On Thu, 10 Jan 2002 14:15:36 GMT, Howard G Walker
<Walker...@att.net> wrote:

snip

>
>Jessy Randall and Wendy Woloson ("Assing Around, XXIV/2) may be interested in an
>additional use of the word. In poolrooms in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn,
>New York, around 1950, assy meant 'lucky,' as in sinking a lucky shot. I don't
>know why.
>http://www.verbatimmag.com/Sum99.html
>

snip

This was also heard in Northwestern Queens section of NYC in the
1950s. "Assy shot(catch, play)", or "That shot (catch, play) was pure
ass." was used in many sports played on a neighborhood level. I
always felt it was an allusion to sticking your ass out, or laying it
all on the line, and somehow, not only avoiding disaster, but
prevailing. It implied, "You are playing way above your abilities."
but was used jocularly, in most cases that I remember.

Brian Wickham

[sloo...@gmail.com]

I smoke Lucky Strikes and I dont remember where I heard this but the "lucky strike" would be the third cigarette lit from a single match, that is IF you didnt get shot because during some war, the men were in the trenches at night and it would have given the enemy enough time to "ready" "aim" and "fire."

[Whiskers]

It was certainly considered 'bad lack' to share a match to light more
than two cigarettes, in my youth. Grandad said it was because in the
trenches in WWI it would give the enemy snipers time to kill one of the
smokers. He didn't smoke.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

[John Varela]

I have never heard the phrase "the lucky strike", and if it exists I
doubt it has anything to do with either WWI or the cigarette brand.

Maybe it had to do with bowling, or perhaps mining or oil
exploration. Either way, it would not take "the". My guess would be
a poor translation into Russian that misused the article.

--
John Varela

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

More likely a poor translation _from_ Russian, as the Russian version
won't have had any sort of article.


--
athel

[John Varela]

What I really meant to suggest was translation first into and then
back out of Russian.

--
John Varela

[Richard Owlett]

On 11/09/2017 12:28 PM, sloo...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, January 4, 2002 at 12:49:04 PM UTC-7, Tvska wrote:
>> I was looking for the origin of the phrase and the only thing
>> I've found was some gossip that it was coined during the
>> Vietnam War. A lucky strike was supposedly an accurately-aimed
>> shot. Could anyone help me with this one please?
>>
>> Tvska
>

[snipping response of sloo...@gmail.com]
I can categorically deny ANY connection with the Vietnam War.
A reference to ' [choice of article] "lucky strike" ' dates from
or before mid 1950's. [I'm a "native speaker" of the 'Upstate New York
dialect of American English' of the era].
I suspect the contextual expression "lucky strike" would be correctly
interpreted by contemporaries of the mid-19th century California Gold-rush.
YMMV

[Don P]

On 10/11/2017 4:07 PM, John Varela wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 18:28:38 UTC, sloo...@gmail.com wrote:

>> I smoke Lucky Strikes and I dont remember where I heard this but
>>the "lucky strike" would be the third cigarette lit from a single match

> Maybe it had to do with bowling, or perhaps mining or oil
> exploration.

Almost certainly mining in the 19th century, cf. "strike it rich" and
similar language. Some mines were notoriously discovered by total
chance, e.g. the silver discovery at Cobalt, Ontario, a lucky strike
(by a blacksmith throwing his hammer) if ever there was.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[jeffer...@example.invalid]

On Sun, 19 Nov 2017 14:41:30 -0600, Richard Owlett <row...@cloud85.net>
wrote:

>I can categorically deny ANY connection with the Vietnam War.
>A reference to ' [choice of article] "lucky strike" ' dates from
>or before mid 1950's. [I'm a "native speaker" of the 'Upstate New York
>dialect of American English' of the era].
>I suspect the contextual expression "lucky strike" would be correctly
>interpreted by contemporaries of the mid-19th century California Gold-rush.
>YMMV

Lucky Strike cigarettes were made before the Vietnam war. In the 50's my
uncle smoked them. When I was in my teens around 1965, I smoked my first
cigarette and it was a Lucky Strike. I chose that brand because of my
uncle. Back then, lots of places sold cigs in vending machines. I still
remember going into a restaurant lobby, and buying a pack from their
vending machine. I really dont know how the law was regarding minors
buying cigs back then, but I do know I was going to be in big trouble if
my parents found out. Of course that didn't stop me from buying them.
And back then, those vending machines even gave out free matches, so I
was sure to get them too.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2017 04:41:29 -0600, jeffer...@example.invalid wrote:

>On Sun, 19 Nov 2017 14:41:30 -0600, Richard Owlett <row...@cloud85.net>
>wrote:
>
>>I can categorically deny ANY connection with the Vietnam War.
>>A reference to ' [choice of article] "lucky strike" ' dates from
>>or before mid 1950's. [I'm a "native speaker" of the 'Upstate New York
>>dialect of American English' of the era].
>>I suspect the contextual expression "lucky strike" would be correctly
>>interpreted by contemporaries of the mid-19th century California Gold-rush.
>>YMMV
>
>Lucky Strike cigarettes were made before the Vietnam war.

Lucky Strike cigarettes were introduced in the early 1900s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Strike

> In the 50's my
>uncle smoked them. When I was in my teens around 1965, I smoked my first
>cigarette and it was a Lucky Strike. I chose that brand because of my
>uncle. Back then, lots of places sold cigs in vending machines. I still
>remember going into a restaurant lobby, and buying a pack from their
>vending machine. I really dont know how the law was regarding minors
>buying cigs back then, but I do know I was going to be in big trouble if
>my parents found out. Of course that didn't stop me from buying them.
>And back then, those vending machines even gave out free matches, so I
>was sure to get them too.

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)

[jeffer...@example.invalid]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2017 11:02:15 +0000, "Peter Duncanson [BrE]"
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:

>>Lucky Strike cigarettes were made before the Vietnam war.
>
>Lucky Strike cigarettes were introduced in the early 1900s.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Strike
>

I never thought to look them up, so Thanks....
Now we know....