Moreover, I only hear its use with the word “Scheme” attached. It may be because I grew up with stories and sons and daughters of the suburban branch of the 1970s mafia. Someone was getting stiffed at all times. Or it very well may be that any time some schlamazel lost $100,000 in a deal, his brother would tell the rest of us where the money went. I cannot remember a single year when I didn’t hear of a Ponzi Scheme. As early as age 7, swear to god.

Here’s another word from my era in Chicago–”Hustle” and it is always said by lawyers and other hustlers but I have never heard it uttered outside of Chicago to the extent I heard it in the heard of Chicago’s Loop. Hustling is not viewed good or bad just something you have to do. You need to use the vernacular “You Gotta Hustle.” You would never say ‘hustle’ without those first two words.

Could it be, then, that our cultures are becoming so interwoven that we are losing the origin of words. Sure, we know about Ponzi, but let’s give “props” (another such word) to those hustlers who molded the phrase, whoever they may be.

I have spotted a few instances of ‘Ponzification’ recently. I expect it to appear on the Google graphs sometime in the next few weeks.