Of great consequence. The term has been referred to the Arabic shakhs, a man, with small probability; and Dr. Brewer traces it, with equal improbability, to shake, an inferior right of commonage. See Notes and Queries, 3 S. ii. 52; 5 S. viii. 184; xii. 369, 473. Byron uses the phrase in a letter to Murray, Sept. 28, 1820 (Century Dict.). And in 1816 Lord Broughton (Diary, Aug. 2) notes that a piece of sculpture at Malines was said to be nullæ magnæ quassationes: Notes and Queries, 11 S. iii. 338. The phrase may or may not be an Americanism. Some earlier quotation may yet be found.
1825. I’m no no great shakes at braggin’—I never was.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 195.
1833. No great shakes tho’ arter all, continued he, sitting on the windlass, talking apparently to himself, with a long nine in his mouth.—The same, ‘The Down-Easters,’ i. 45.
1834. There is no great shakes in managin the affairs of the nation.—C. A. Davis, ‘Letters of Jack Downing, Major,’ p. 55.
1837. Any how, his legs are no great shakes. There’s no more muscle in them than there is in an unstarched shirt collar.—J. C. Neal, ‘Charcoal Sketches,’ p. 199.
1840. We don’t think it any great shakes, Corporal.—Daily Pennant, St. Louis, July 7.
1842. If the steeple of St. Peter’s, with its new peal of bells, did not vibrate, it would certainly be a proof that it was no great shakes.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Nov. 5.
1843. I think myself considerable shakes of a shot.—Yale Lit. Mag., ix. 38 (Nov.).
1844. You cracked Tompkins up, didn’t you, and Tompkins pretends to be great shakes, don’t he?—J. C. Neal, ‘Peter Ploddy,’ &c., p. 137 (Phila.).
1846.
| An’ it ’s a consolation, tu, although it doos n’t pay, | |
| To hev it said you ’re some gret shakes in any kin’ o’ way. | |
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ No. 8. |
1846. Experience has proved to many a demagogue, who had exclaimed against it before getting into office, that $8 per day … was no great shakes.—Mr. Wick of Indiana, House of Repr., July 20: Cong. Globe, p. 1119.
1848. None of these towns along here on the Canady side ain’t no grate shakes.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel,’ p. 175 (Phila.).
a. 1853. A petticoat is no great shakes after all, when it hangs fluttering on a clothes-line.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iii. 133.
1857. We incline to the belief that the coming comet will be “no great shakes” after all.—San Francisco Call, May 8.
