"Morning in America" (1984); "Teflon" President (1983)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:

> this? Also, it would be interesting to know when the phrase was first
> used with the definite article (which changed the sense of 'great',
> of course) -- was this before the 1980 election?

Earliest with definite article on Nexis is U.S. News & World Report, 8
Dec. 1980.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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