Tango

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 28 Mar 2000 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>     The Cornell Making of America database is very helpful for "wag the dog,"
> "Great Scott," and even "pizza."

I have been using the Cornell Making of America database for tracing
word-origins for a couple of months now.  It appears to be richer for this
purpose than the University of Michigan MOA, and indeed it appears to be
the richest electronic resource for historical linguistic research
currently in existence.

Here are some of the more important terms I have antedated using Cornell
MOA:

linguistics
imperialism
aesthetics
feminist
psychiatry
journalism
pornography
chauvinism
prehistoric
tuberculosis
detective
argot
proletariat
lobbyist
criminology
phony
Lesbian
impressionism


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