[Ads-l] "my bad" redux

[Ben Zimmer]

In the 2010 thread I linked to, Jesse Sheidlower mentioned that the OED had
"my bad" from The Back-In-Your-Face Guide to Pick-Up Basketball (1986),
which is cited in the OED3 entry (after the 1985 cite Garson found). Jon
Lighter seemed to think it might be in the earlier edition, The
In-Your-Face Basketball Book (1980), but I believe an OED researcher
checked and it wasn't there. But we still may be able to find it in some
pre-1985 source, since, as Larry said, the '85 cites take it as a known
phrase (at least among sportswriters who presumably enjoyed playing pick-up
basketball).

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 11:51 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> We had a thread on this in October 1997; the consensus was that it
> originated in the mid 1980s in a basketball context (presumably from
> players admitting they were responsible for a foul), so basically
> consistent with the findings below.  It would seem from the Dan Rooney
> quote, though, that that usage must have established (although perhaps not
> attested in print) before April 1985.  The truth is out there!
>
> LH
>
> > On Oct 23, 2018, at 11:31 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > On the Woot.com blog, Ken Jennings has a post in his "debunker" series,
> > "Did Manute Bol Coin the Phrase 'My Bad'?":
> >
> >
> https://www.woot.com/blog/post/the-debunker-did-manute-bol-coin-the-phrase-my-bad
> >
> > This appears to rely on research I rounded up in a Word Routes column in
> > 2010, after Manute Bol died:
> >
> >
> https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/the-manute-bol-theory-of-my-bad/
> >
> > In that column, I noted that the earliest known citation was one that
> > Garson found from Nov. 1985 and posted to ADS-L. (It was subsequently
> > included in the OED3 entry for "bad.")
> >
> > ----
> > 1985 Gainesville Sun 14 Nov. 3E Yes, the Vols still must host Vandy the
> > following weekend, but c'mon, Vandy? Oops, my bad, I forgot for a moment
> > what the Commodore did to Georgia. Silly me.
> >
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ya4RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vekDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3244,4369872
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-April/098781.html
> > ----
> >
> > That example was from Bobby Tyler, a sportswriter in Gainesville,
> Florida.
> > Here it is earlier in 1985 from Dan Rooney, a local sports columnist in
> > Muncie, Indiana.
> >
> > ----
> > The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana), Apr. 14, 1985, p. C7, col. 3
> > I know. I picked Fuzzy Zoeller to win the Masters and he didn't even make
> > the cut. My bad.
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24771896/my_bad/
> > ----
> >

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