[Ads-l] Antedating of "Doodle" (Noun and Verb)

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Tue Dec 8 12:17:12 UTC 2020


I am surprised to see that the OED's first use of "doodle" (aimless scrawl), both as noun and as verb, is dated 1937.  This term was of course introduced in the 1936 film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.  Perhaps at the time the OED entry was written the policy was to cite only print sources?

Fred Shapiro

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