"wuss"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, A. Vine wrote:

> Out of curiosity, what is the first cite for "poo-poo head"?

1985 _Wash. Post_ 27 June  When I stepped in recently to stop some
hitting, the new child called me "poo-poo head."

Actually, I think your question brings up a very good point.  There
probably is some class of vocabulary (baby words would be one example)
that is in common usage but that does not get picked up well even by the
best slang dictionaries. I don't think "wuss" falls into that class, but
"poo-poo head" does.

Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2