"meanderthal"

[Laurence Horn]

An intermittently blend, and evidently not a brand-spanking-new word,
but still relatively new.  I first encountered it in a piece in the
Times earlier this week...


The New York Times
July 16, 2002, Tuesday
SECTION: Section B; Page 1; Column 2; Metropolitan Desk
HEADLINE: Think You Own the Sidewalk?; Etiquette by New York
Pedestrians Is Showing a Strain

BYLINE:  By MARC SANTORA
The average New York City fast walker does not have to get stuck
behind a pack of mall walkers to grow sour. A single person moving at
a slow clip-clop can be enough. There is even a word for this
slowpoke: meanderthal.  An Internet dictionary of slang defines him
as "an annoying individual moving slowly and aimlessly in front of
another individual who is in a bit of a hurry."

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The first Nexis hits are a couple of Herb Caen columns (1993, 1994)
that use the word in a different sense:  just a man (i.e. Caen) who
likes to meander (e.g. past the Condomania store in S.F. with a sign
advertising "Condoms Half Off").  There's also a mid-90's musical
group with the same name (Meanderthal, that is, not Condomania).  But
the earliest relevant Nexis hit is:

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
March 2, 2001 Friday, Home Edition
  SECTION: Features; Pg. 2E
  HEADLINE: eLIVING
  BYLINE: Jeffry Scott

...
meanderthal (n) an annoying individual moving slowly and aimlessly in
front of another individual who is in a hurry
SUBMITTED TO THE PEOPLE'S DICTIONARY BY PETER BOJKOV OF NEW YORK CITY
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Does Bojkov get coining credit or was it already around before this?

larry