antedating WUSS

[Jesse T Sheidlower]

>
> I think we would all do well to check with Connie on all such questions! She
> is amazing.

Even for those who do not normally get Connie's slang collections, many
words can be checked against the list at the back of her wonderful
book, _Slang and Sociability._ Connie very helpfully records the
earliest date in her student collections of each term in the glossary.
I don't know if _wuss_ is included--I would have checked but don't
have access to my copy here--but it is always an important place to
start for words having any potential student slang use.

Jesse Sheidlower
Oxford English Dictionary
<jester at panix.com>