WASP

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 29 Dec 2002, Sam Clements wrote:

> M-W cites from 1957.  I know all about the 1962/64 cites from
> Palmore/Baltzell.  What I want is the cite from 1957.  Any help?  Or
> should I just write to M-W.  They've always replied before.  I just
> wanted a faster answer.

This is probably the 1957 citation I discovered and reported in an article
in American Speech some years ago:

1957 Andrew M. Hacker in _Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev._ LI. 1011
They are "WASPs" -- in the cocktail party jargon of the sociologists.
That is, they are white, they are Anglo-Saxon in origin, and they are
Protestant.

This may well be the earliest appearance in print of the term.

Fred Shapiro

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