Quote Unquote

[Fred Shapiro]

In today's "On Language" column William Safire, following OED, gives E. E.
Cummings in 1935 as the first use for "quote...unquote."  There is an
earlier usage by the Marx Brothers, however:

1933 _Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel_ (radio transcript) 20 Mar. in _The
Essential Groucho_ (Stefan Kanfer ed. 2000) 64  In re yours of the fifth
inst. yours to hand and in reply, I wish to state that the judiciary
expenditures of this year, i.e., have not exceeded the fiscal
year--brackets--this procedure is problematical.  Quotes, unquotes, and
quotes.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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