wifebeater

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 5 Jul 2000, Bonikowski, Heather wrote:

> Does anyone have a citation earlier than 1997 for *wifebeater* to mean 'a
> sleeveless undershirt'? I know I heard it much earlier, but I am coming up
> dry on cites.

There was discussion of this on ADS-L a couple of years ago, but no
citations, at least as best I can determine from the archives.  Here's the
earliest cite from Nexis:

1994 _Boston Globe_ 28 Sept. (Nexis)  Bowling shirts are in, wife beaters
are out.

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