long firm

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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  • 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]
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y=2023
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(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Noun

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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

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  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