[Ads-l] "first responder"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 11:12:42AM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
> Does anyone have any antedates for this (in the specific sense of, as far
> as I can tell, 'police officer or fire fighter')? Nothing under "responder"
> in the OED entry. My associations are from the post-9/11 period.  I'm not
> sure if my definition is expansive enough.  Presumably (although I'm not
> sure) EMTs would be included, but not other medical personnel, because the
> responder has to come to the respondees and not vice versa.

There is an OED entry for this, under _first_:

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first responder  n. North American a member of the emergency services who is first on the scene at an (esp. medical) emergency, esp. a member of a fire or police department trained to provide emergency medical care.
  
  1975   Jet 20 Feb. 18/1   The course, now taught at Harvard, trains ‘first responders’,—firemen, police and ambulance personnel to administer medical aid.

  1980   N.Y. Times 15 Sept. b4/5   There have been repeated efforts to get the Police Department to assume ‘first responder’ first aid responsibilities and train its officers in resuscitation for heart-attack victims.

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