"Second-hand Sam" was horrified to see a recent customer drive back into his used car lot. Just an hour before, that customer had bought one of Sam’s "second-hand specials." Sam stood in the doorway of his trailer and called across the lot, "Nothing wrong, is there?" The man who had bought the car shouted back, "No, I just wanted to return some things. Remember that you said this second-hand car was only driven to the bank once a week by a little old lady? Well, that little old lady left some cigars in the glove compartment and a bottle of Scotch under the front seat!"

Sam called his cars "second-hand" because another hand had first driven them. That word "second-hand" means not new, used or worn already by someone else. The word often has shady associations. For instance, in 1921, Grant …