[Ads-l] "go ape(shit)"

[Ben Zimmer]

I've got a piece up on Slate on the history of "go ape(shit)."

https://slate.com/culture/2018/06/apeshit-etymology-the-history-of-the-phrase-behind-beyonce-and-jay-zs-new-single.html

Antedatings for "go ape" (OED/HDAS 1955, GDoS 1954):

Desert Hot Springs (Calif.) Sentinel, Oct. 11, 1951, p. 6, col. 3
I hear that the new by-word is "I'm going gorilla" instead of "I'm going
ape."
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21068697/go_ape/

Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal, Dec. 6, 1951, p. 13, col. 2
"he went ape" -- to extremes.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21069343/go_ape/

I wasn't able to antedate the earliest HDAS cite for "go apeshit" from Walt
Sheldon's 1952 novel "Troubling of a Star" ("What do I want to fight for?
You going apeshit?"). (JL dated the cite to 1951, presumably as an
approximate date of the novel's writing.)

--bgz

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