“Gazump”

My friend Michael Regan, a Bloomberg journalist, sent me a link to a Bloomberg article Mike commented: “Gazump: Fun new Britishism making the rounds on Wall Street.” I didn’t know from “gazump” so immediately looked it up. The OED‘s main definition is “swindle” and its first cite is from the Daily Express in 1928: “‘Gazoomphing the sarker’ is a method of parting a rich man from his money. An article is auctioned over and over again, and the money bid each time is added to it.” (Note that both this and the Bloomberg quote have quotation marks around the word, indicating recent coinage.) The definition goes on to note a more specific meaning: “to act improperly in the sale of houses, etc,” which apparently originated around 1971, the date of a Guardian article with this sentence (and again note the quotation marks), “‘Gazumping’—a system of profiteering by double selling and pushing prices up—is creeping into the property market… The word is car trade slang for selling to one buyer and…