evanescence of slang (was: An initial 4A N2...?)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 07/01/2002 6:21:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU writes:

> How about "booze"?
>
>  dInIs
>
>  >>on 7/1/02 11:45 AM, Dave Wilton at dave at WILTON.NET wrote:
>  >
>  >I always trot out "cool" as the longest-surviving lexical item that
>  >has retained its slang categorization.


OED2 has "booze" from 1732.   No, it is not a Kentucky term.

That beats Dennis Preston's favorite "cracker" (or "corn-cracker") which is
1766, "redneck" (quite late at 1893), and "white trash" (1831).

1833 "The slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white
servants, whom they designate as "poor white trash".

           - Jim Landau