what's cooking -- history of the expression [closed]
Does anyone know when the expression "what's cooking" began to be used in the United States? I'm interested because I'm writing a novel set in 1933. Thank you in advance for your help.
GDoS (Green’s Dictionary of Slang) has usage examples from the ‘20s, so you can probably use it safely in your context:
What’s cooking:
lit. ‘what’s going on?’, i.e. what is happening?; thus negative response nothing cooking.
1926 Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 11/2: Nothing cooking – Nothing doing.
1944 H. Brown Walk in Sun 77: What’s cooking, Jack?