Junior High

[Sam Clements]

Just to offer some information--

Assuming that OED is correct, you can search the SSDI, Social Security Death Index, for "first name=junior" from birth year 1908.

You get 33 hits.  

So, if indeed "Junior High" was "invented" in 1909, someone, somewhere thought about naming their bouncing baby boy "junior" before it became a fad.

Sam Clements
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joel S. Berson 
  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
  Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 09:58
  Subject: Re: Junior High


  At 1/9/2010 09:38 AM, Bill Palmer wrote:

    Today's Raleigh News & Observer reveals that in 1921, Mr & Mrs. Loomis High of Wilson NC named their new little boy "Junior".

  I wondered, so ... the OED's earliest citation for "junior high school" is 1909.  Like other fads, it was probably popular for a while.

  Joel ------------------------------------------------------------ The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org