long firm

English

Etymology
  • Perhaps from the idea that such a firm (company) would claim to have been established for a long time.
  • Perhaps from Old English gelang (“fraudulent”) and Italian firma (“signature”).[1](Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Noun

long firm (plural long firms)

  1. A company of swindlers who obtain goods on pretence of being established in business, and then decamp without payment to do the same elsewhere.[2]

References
  1. Dan Davies (2018) Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World, page 28
  2. John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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