Antedating of "Striptease"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Apr 13 14:31:04 UTC 2014


The first OED cite for "ecdysiast" is 1940 (Mencken), so we can probably rule out the possibility that "strip tease/teaser" originated as a calque from the Ancient Greek.

LH

On Apr 13, 2014, at 10:18 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:

> Google Books contains an issue of Vanity Fair that uses the expression
> "strip teaser" instead of "strip tease" in August 1929. Only snippets
> are displayed, but there is a snippet showing the date and the word
> "strip". Should be verified on paper, I think.
>
> Magazine: Vanity Fair
> Date: August 1929 (Visible in snippet)
> Page: 51 (Visible in snippet; hard to read)
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=owQTAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=teaser
>
> [Begin extracted text]
> this runway and across the stage the women work laboriously at the
> game of shimmy and the "strip teaser." The latter is the routine lure
> of the principal women. Occasionally capable and well-shaped dancers
> like "Peaches" of Laffin Thru or Anne Corio of Girls in Blue add some
> art of execution and even of mock-modest reticence to the business of
> [End extracted text]
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 10:40 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Striptease"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "Died" is in the original.
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
>> Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2014 12:04 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Striptease"
>>
>> On Apr 11, 2014, at 9:29 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>
>>> striptease (OED 1936)
>>>
>>> 1931 _Billboard_ 6 June 28 (Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive)  The died-in-the-wool
>> Wonder if that's an eggcorn or a simple typo.
>>
>> LH
>>
>>
>>> burlesque fan ... is fed up on the "strip tease racket".
>>>
>>> Fred Shapiro
>>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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