Economists might want to cite Milton Friedman when it comes to free markets, but don't quote him about free lunches. It turns out that the truism "There's no such thing as a free lunch" attributed to him by Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and other sources, was not originally conceived by Friedman.

The saying has been attributed to Friedman ever since he published a book by the same name in 1975. However, using JSTOR to help compile the forthcoming Yale Dictionary of Quotations, Yale University researcher Fred Shapiro has unearthed evidence that the quotation was first used at a much earlier date.

A 1952 article in the journal Ethics about nationalizing industries, attributes the saying to "Professor Alvin Hansen in his famous TINSTAAFL formula - 'There's no such thing as a free lunch.'" (Professor Hansen was a prominent economist and professor at Harvard University.)

Shapiro is a linguistic cyber-sleuth, historical lexicographer, lecturer in legal research at Yale University, and editor of the forthcoming Yale Dictionary of Quotations. He is using JSTOR to ensure the inclusion in the Yale Dictionary of Quotations of the most popular and eloquent quotations, especially more modern American sayings which are often missed by other dictionaries of quotations. Shapiro has also used JSTOR to find much earlier uses of important words and phrases than had previously been known, often significantly pushing back the record as documented by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). He has already antedated more than 500 important terms.

Shapiro is a pioneer in using computer databases for this kind of research: in 1978, he became one of the first people to start using Lexis/Nexis (back when the database was just called Lexis) for linguistic research. Here are some examples of other discoveries that JSTOR has made possible:

Double-standard: (OED 1951, JSTOR 1912, in a book review of A Short History of Women's Rights in The American Political Science Review, Vol. VI, Issue 4): "Mr. Hecker urges that the double standard of morality for the sexes must gradually be abolished."

Common market: (OED 1954, JSTOR 1893, "The Duties on Wool and Woollens" by F.W. Taussig, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 8, Issue 1): "Probably the wool that might compete most directly with the bulk of the domestic product is that of the Argentine Republic...the duty prohibits its importation into the United States. So long has it been prohibited that the trade has lost that one infallible measure of comparison which is given by sale in a common market."

Native American: (OED 1974, JSTOR 1931, in a book review of Adair's History of the American Indians, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Volume 17, Issue 4): "Imbued with the old idea that the native Americans were the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, Adair...took up the study of Hebrew."

Solar: (OED 1972, JSTOR 1914, in a book review of Natural Sources of Energy, by A.H. Gibson, Journal of Political Economy, Volume 22, Issue 7): "The author [believes] that science will furnish inventions that will economize the use of fossil fuels and make more and more available other source of energy - power from vegetable sources, from solar energy, from tides, from waterfall, and from wind."

At JSTOR, we find all of this very fascinating, but Shapiro reminds us that it is also important. We invited Shapiro to speak at our Participants' Meeting at the 2000 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Shapiro points out that "the history of the terminology of a science or social science is a vital component of the history of that science, and an index to the terminology, setting forth the particulars of the coinage of each term, is an invaluable aid for historians of ideas." When we set out to build a scholarly archive of important journal literature, it never occurred to us that we would be creating a powerful lexicographical tool.

Amateur etymologists can now contribute their favorite quotations to the Yale Dictionary of Quotations through an interactive Web site for the project, www.quotationdictionary.com.

Last updated on September 8, 2006