Sheidlower on "Lewinsky"

[Victoria Neufeldt]

The New York Post calls that a verb?

Victoria

Victoria Neufeldt, Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street, P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA  01102
Tel. (413) 734-3134 ext 124
Fax  (413) 827-7262

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Sent: Friday, October 15, 1999 1:21 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Sheidlower on "Lewinsky"
>
>
>      Sorry for that subject head!
>      Jesse "The Dad" Sheidlower is in the New York Post, 15
> October 1999, pg.
> 33, cols. 1-6:
>
> _"Lewinsky" Becomes a Verb_
> Monica's Dad can't really complain:
> She's _earned_ a place in the dictionary
> Meredith Berkman (mberkman at nypost.com)
>
> (col. 6)
>      But Jesse Sheidlower, the editor of the Oxford English
> Dictionary who is
> responsible for American entries, requires further evidence that
> "a Lewinsky"
> has formally entered our lexicon before he'll include it in the OED.
> Sheidlower, who watched the "Law & Order" episode, is waiting for
> the moment
> he hears the term on the street.
>      "I'd only put it in if I thought it had real currency, if it
> was being
> used widely and independently...not as something a professional TV writer
> came up with," he says.  "I'd need to see an example in a
> completely neutral
> context (like), 'Hey, baby.  Want to give me a Lewinsky?'"
>