parlo(u)r pink, pinko

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 19 Jul 2003, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:

> I wonder if someone could help me trace the earliest uses of these
> items. The OED gives 1910 for "parlour" in this use (in "parlour
> socialist," a phrase for which JSTOR has an -or antedate for 1908)
> and gives 'pink' in this sense from 1927, but gives no cite for the
> collocation "parlour pink" until 1960: "1960 News Chron. 22 June 6/5
> A wonderfully reactionary view of country life. It makes John Buchan
> look a Œparlour pink.¹"

Here are two earlier cites:

1920 _N.Y. Times_ 25 Apr. XX1  As the complexion of the radical changes
from palest parlor pink to darkest red, the joy increases in proportion.

1923 _Wash. Post_ 13 Apr. 1  It would be easily possible to ... link the
American fund for public service with perhaps fifty or more of the leading
pacifist, pro-Bolshevist and parlor pink organizations.

Fred Shapiro


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