Naz, Eble "wuss"

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Tue Feb 8 02:08:17 UTC 2000


   I'm going through ESQUIRE AND PLAYBOY, and I'll round up that stuff a bit later...I'll probably go to the Library of Congress again on Thursday, and research more cocktail books and the slang language in HUSTLER (which may have "wuss").
   Here are two more slang books.
   NAZ'S DICTIONARY OF TEEN SLANG (1993) by Kenn "Naz" Young, pg. 141:

WUSS--A weak person, a sissy (circa 1987)
WUSSY--A girl (circa 1980s)

   SLANG & SOCIABILITY (1996) by Connie Eble, pg. 185:

Select Glossary of Student Slang, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1972-1993
WUSS--a weakling, someone who cannot be depended on 76
(No WUSSY--ed.)
(NERD (...) 72--ed.)
(WIMP (...) 77--ed.)

   I didn't open Eble's book before because I knew that Tom Dalzell had looked at it.  "Wuss" didn't show up in 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975.  As I said before, a 1975-1980 dating seems to be a good one.  Chapman's DAS (3rd edition) 1960s dating probably was cribbed from Tony Thorne, who is probably wrong.



More information about the Ads-l mailing list