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It may be worth remembering that the OED only shows the earliest written occurrence in standard texts it can find. Since slang almost always starts are purely spoken idiom and reaches "respectable" texts much later, the OED date is not a reliable indicator of when the words entered spoken parlance. The 1827 date, for example, for manipulate and the existence of earlier usages of the term would indicate a reasonable possibility of spoken use during the Regency era.
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