Teen Lingo site

[Baker, John]

        The earliest I see on Westlaw is the Seattle-Times, 6/22/1986, where it's a reference to Bo Jackson.  But Westlaw poops out around that time, so the absence of earlier cites there is not significant.  I've always heard this as referring to Frank Sinatra, and indeed there is a 9/16/1987 use in the Boston Globe to refer to Sinatra.

        It's got to go back farther than this.  What surprised me was the vast range of people to whom it can refer.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 9:14 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Teen Lingo site


At 12:11 AM -0500 2/1/05, Wilson Gray wrote:
>  Another first: on a sitcom, I heard a white character
>say: "It's your world. I'm just living in it."

This has been big on ESPN's SportsCenter for a while.  A highlight
of, say, a basketball player X making a great move is shown and the
anchor says "It's X's world; we're just living in it."  At least
since the late 90's.  Maybe first with Michael Jordan?  Can you help
narrow it down, Alice?

larry