multiple, contentious coiners?

[George Thompson]

I recall a bickering session in, I think, the letters section of the NYTimes book review between two novelists who both claimed to have invented the name "Genghis Kahn" (or perhaps "Cohen") for a character.  If there is interest, I will try to dredge up details.  From the 1960s, probably.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2003 1:59 pm
Subject: Re: multiple, contentious coiners?

> On Thu, 15 May 2003, Erin McKean wrote:
>
> > I thought I had saved some examples of words whose coinage is
> claimed> by several (quarrelsome) people, but I haven't been able
> to find them
> > ... any suggestions?
>
> This is not a case of quarrelsomeness, but the word "yuppie" may
> have been
> coined by several people independently.  It was used by Mark
> Schwed in
> 1983, Alice Kahn in 1983, Bob Greene in 1983, the Los Angeles
> Times in
> 1982, Joseph Epstein in 1982, and Marissa Piesman says she heard
> it in
> 1979; all these usages may be independent of each other.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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