Antedating of "Fellow Traveler"

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jun 12 18:38:26 UTC 2014


Barry has an entry on the "Fellow Traveler" topic dated April 8, 2010.
The 1933 NYT cite was included. The entry also has a 1931 cite and
information from Wikipedia about the term's earlier use in Russian.

Title: Fellow Traveler or Fellow Traveller (Communist sympathizer)

Short link:  http://bit.ly/1q8kB3S

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/fellow_traveler_or_fellow_traveller_communist_sympathizer



Barry has an entry on "useful idiot". (Barry lists a Congressional
Record item with a date that he thinks might be dubious. He is correct
that the 1936 date is wrong.) The June 21, 1948 New York Times
citation is valid.

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/useful_idiot

Wikipedia has an entry that also list the June 21, 1948 NYT cite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

I've gathered data on this topic but haven't written an entry at this time.


On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Fellow Traveler"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Russell Baker had a curious use in an Observer piece in the NYTimes of June
> 25, 1967:
>
> On Sixth Avenue in midtown the other day, there were two slyly grinning
> gentlemen standing side by side staring the masses straight in the eye
> while one of them held up a small crudely lettered sign saying, "Useful
> Idiots".
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 8:19 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Fellow Traveler"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On the same topic, is there an early cite for "useful idiot", which was
>> supposedly used by Lenin in this sense, but apparently hasn't been found in
>> Lenin's work?  It's been revived in the right-wing blogosphere and/or Fox
>> News to characterize Democrats who have been putatively "duped" by
>> leftists, Islamists, or whoever.
>>
>> LH
>>
>> On Jun 11, 2014, at 7:51 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>
>> > fellow traveler (OED, 2., 1936)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > 1933 _N.Y. Times Book Review_ 23 Apr. 2 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
>>  ROMANOF is a "fellow traveler," as Trotsky phrased it, more generally and
>> sympathetically read by the Western world than by Russia.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Fred Shapiro
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
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