GRGR4 - "score"

[jm]

>__________________
>22) Pointsman "scores" an octopus? Does this relate to the previous
>    sexual imagery?
>
>Me: Or dope imagery which probably preceeded the sexual
>conotation in the evolution of the verb. Not sure the
>slang usage of "score" was around yet in the forties. Would love to
know--if anyone has an OED.
>______________________________

Score is one of those words that merits several pages in the OED.  The
general criminal sense for "score" showed up in the 30s in something by
Damon Runyan, author of (among other things) the sensitive, new-agey,
collection entitled _Poems for Men_.  The drug sense showed up first in 1935
(A.J.Pollack, whoever he was), and was later used by William S. Burroughs in
_Junkie_ in the 50s.  The sexual sense for "score" didn't appear until 1960.
At that point I got tired of holding the magnifying glass.
-j minnich