long firm

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

  • Perhaps from the idea that such a firm (company) would claim to have been established for a long time.
  • Perhaps from Old English gelang (fraudulent) and Italian firma (signature).[1]The template Template:rfv-etym does not use the parameter(s):
    m=June

y=2023 Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Noun[edit]

long firm (plural long firms)

  1. A company of swindlers who obtain goods on pretence of being established in business, and then decamp without payment to do the same elsewhere.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dan Davies (2018) Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World, page 28
  2. ^ John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary