Skycap ( 1940)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Thu Aug 9 21:26:48 UTC 2001


   M-W has 1941.  OED has 1950.
   This is useful when I'm traveling.  I can impress fellow travelers with tales of "jet lag" and "sky cap" antedates.
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 24 December 1940, pg. 11, col. 8:

   _Air-Line Porters "Skycaps"_
   Willie Wainwright, of New Orleans, was announced yesterday as the winner of a competition to select a name for porters at the Airlines Terminal, Forty-second Street and Park Avenue.  His suggestion was "skycaps," and he won $100.  There were 2,780 persons in the contest.

(For another contest word that entered the language, see "scofflaw"--ed.)



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