Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 18. The word origin today is
scalper. Okay. Let's take a look at the meaning of scalper first. A scalper is
someone who buys a ticket to an event believed to be very high in demand and
short in supply. He will often resell the tickets at excessively higher prices.
Yeah. Probably you know, triple , quadruple whatever he paid. That's why sometimes
you often hear people saying how they hate them or they dislike them. Even
though they still usually able to sell them though. Those people that really
want to see it and they weren't able to get a ticket they might show up at the
at the place, at the building, at that event and try to rebuy it. Try to buy one
they're willing to pay these high prices so scalpers can get them. Of
course , this is illegal. You're allowed to resell a ticket for like a cheaper price
or the same price. I think it depends on the states. Some states might allow you to
sell for slightly more like maybe 10% more, but not these excessively higher
prices. So in most places scalping is considered to be illegal.
All right. Let's continue. The origin of this term is believed to have originated
from someone who resold unused portions of railway tickets. Really I never
heard that story before. At one time long distance railway tickets were much
cheaper per mile than tickets for short distances. Therefore if someone bought a
ticket to California and got off halfway in Chicago for example he could resell
the ticket and greatly reduce his cost rather than buying a ticket directly to
Chicago. Yeah. You almost get the ticket for free or for much, much less. So this
action was considered to be scalping. All right. Let's continue. At that time, in the late
1800s scalp used to have the meaning of a conman
or cheat or a cheater. You don't really use it that way today but at that time
it did. There's also the connection of cutting off the scalp of a defeated
enemy. Yes we see this a lot of cowboy movies. Sometimes Indians did it to
whites. Whites they did to Indians. We, we've seen this happen, but I think I think
this used to be a tradition in some Native American tribes but also you know
unfortunately the Westerners are the the you know the frontiersman they sometimes
did this the Indians too. When they didn't want them around a certain area
or so. Let's continue. So sometimes in Indian custom. This was also done to some
Indians or animals if there was a bounty offered for them. So if they offered some
money you know because maybe they were afraid for them to be around this area
either animals probably dangerous animals or Indians that they might think
more violent rather than you know bringing a whole dead body. Which would
smell and everything else just cut off the scalp. The Scalp was proof that you
had you know, I guess killed an Indian or the animal. .
Here the connection to train tickets was you only have part of something. You
only had part of the ticket left, but you could still get paid. So that's where
they made the connection. That's why they started calling that scalping, and that's
why today we call it you know, the , the action is to scalp. The person who does
it is a scalper and you know the action somebody could be scalping. So this is
where it came from. This is the origin of it. Anyway,
I hope you got it and hope you thought it was interesting. Thank you for your
time. Bye-bye.