etymology - Origin of phrase "open-and-shut" as in "it's not an open-and-shut case"


I used the phrase "open-and-shut" today, as in, "It's not an open-and-shut case", meaning that the item under discussion has not been decided and the outcome is not obvious.


I don't think I've ever heard the positive, only the negative. "It's not an open-and-shut case" seems to be the idiomatic way to use the phrase. I'm curious:



  1. What's the origin of "open-and-shut"?

  2. What's the origin of the idiomatic usage, "not an open-and-shut case"?




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