Origin of phrase ‘trick-or-treat’ in print traced to the Sault

The list

1. 01

   The Sault Daily Star reference to 'tricks or treats' 1917

   Nov 1, 1917 edition; brief story on local youngsters celebrating Halloween the night before; now the oldest known printed reference worldwide.

2. 02

   Edmonton Bulletin reference to 'treat or tricks' 1922

   Found by Barry Popik the year before the article; a 1922 story mentioning 'treat or tricks'.

3. 03

   Lethbridge, Alberta reference to 'trick or treat' 1927

   Found by Popik in 2007 and shared with the American Dialect Society; first known printed reference for well over a decade until later discoveries.

Facts from the original

• Barry Popik is an American etymologist from New York who has been studying language for decades.
• According to Popik, the Sault is the first place to reference 'tricks or treats' in print anywhere in the world.
• The citation comes from an edition of The Sault Daily Star on November 1, 1917, which detailed a brief story about local youngsters out celebrating Halloween the previous evening.
• The 1917 Sault Daily Star article read: 'Tricks or treats you could hear the gangs call out.'
• Popik has logged over 32,000 entries investigating word origins.
• Popik's word-origin subjects have ranged from American city nicknames like 'The Windy City' and 'The Big Apple' to Canadian familiarities like poutine and Nanaimo bars.
• Popik says social media makes it easier nowadays to find the exact dates of word origins, compared to the library research he did in the 90s.
• Popik has been tracking down the birthplace of Halloween's most popular phrase for some time now.
• Back in 2007, Popik found a citation from 1927 in Lethbridge, Alberta that mentioned 'trick or treat,' and he shared it with the American Dialect Society.
• The 1927 Lethbridge citation was the first known printed reference to the phrase for well over a decade.
• Last year (relative to the Nov 1, 2022 article) Popik discovered the Edmonton Bulletin mentioned 'treat or tricks' in a 1922 story.
• Recently Popik came across The Sault Daily Star's Halloween story from 105 years earlier through an online database of newspapers, making it the oldest known printed reference to the phrase anywhere in the world.
• Popik said: 'We had no idea it was printed earlier than the 1920s, and we certainly had no idea it was in Ontario.'
• Popik said: 'I can't guarantee the origin will stand for all time. All I can say is they digitized millions of newspaper pages, and the Sault is clearly the first – it's the earliest we could find.'
• Popik has reached out to news organizations and publications across the globe requesting they write about the Sault being the first to mention 'tricks or treats' in print.
• A pair of websites in Australia and Great Britain have written about it, but it has yet to break through in North America.
• Popik said he did not even get a response from the Ontario Historical Society.
• Local historian Cindy Ellen Crawford says the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Archives recently made her aware of the 'tricks and treats' publication origins.
• Crawford presented that information as a guest speaker at the Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site in the week before the article was published.
• Crawford says she does not have any particular theories for why the Sault was the first place to publish the term in print.
• Crawford says the idea of Halloween was rapidly changing from 1890 up until the 1910s.
• Crawford says Halloween was recognized more as a commercial entity by the 1900s and was starting to really ramp up as an activity.
• Crawford says the fact that the phrase was first published in 1917 does not mean it was the first time it was used, but it was the start of it becoming more commercialized.
• Crawford says Halloween terminology has changed drastically, from 'souling' and 'guising' in past centuries to what is now called 'trick-or-treating.'
• Crawford says Halloween has gone through many evolutions and customs, borrowed from different faith-based practices as well as homage to the end of the harvest season.
• Crawford says it will be something to watch as trends continue to evolve over the next century.