money crabbing

A friend asked ‘How exactly does one crab money?’ He had noticed an item in the morning paper which referred to ‘money crabbing lawyers and solicitors’. You might think it is just a typo but there more examples of money crabbing on the internet than can be explained away as typos.  ‘ A money crabbing pariah.  A money crabbing gay lord.  A money crabbing tool.’ And there are some money crabbing schemes and scams and exercises.

 Why should it be so?  Money grabbing seems quite straightforward. You make a grab at money and are, therefore, money grabbing.  This expression appeared in the late 1800s, and was preceded by money grubbing, an early 1800s term for digging in metaphorical filth to make money. The money grubber was, half a century earlier, preceded by the money grub, that is, a loathsome worm that exists to make money. None of these are directly related in that they are all etymologically different, although they may have influenced each other.

 But money crabbing is on its own! Is the image that of a crab clawing at money with its pincers? Why should crabbing creep into the phrase and what could it possibly mean? It would be nice to pull out this lexical weed before it becomes invasive.