sandwich a term, and indeed an object, whose origin is generally attributed to John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who according to the NSOED is ‘said to have eaten food in this form so as to avoid having to leave the gaming table’. Ayto (1993) cites a work of 1770, Londres, by the author Grosley in support of this view, and remarks that the first use of the word in print occurs in the journal of Edward Gibbon for 24 November 1762, when he had dinner at an establishment which he regarded as ‘truly English’ and was able to observe numerous important contemporaries supping off cold meat ‘or a Sandwich’.
