etymology - Origin of the phrase "free, white, and twenty-one . . .
Bartlett Whiting, Modern Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings (1989) cites instances of "free, white and twenty-one" as a proverbial phrase going back to 1932, in Cecil Gregg, The Body Behind the Bar: A Tale of Inspector Higgins: "Shes free, white, and twenty-one. " (Oddly enough, Gregg was a British writer and this mystery novel was published in . . .
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