The nature of slang and HDAS

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003, Baker, John wrote:

> it.  I'm tempted to add "yuppie," but Fred Shapiro says it was used
> orally in the 1970s.  (Incidentally, I see "yuppie" used in the Dallas
> Morning News on 7/19/82; is this an antedating?)  Even television

Very close (how did you get this citation, John?), but not quite an
antedating.  It is, however, notable as the second oldest citation anyone
has found as far as I know.  The earliest I know of, which I believe I got
from the OED files, is the following:

1982 Joseph Epstein in Commentary June 61 His [John Irving's] novels
exert their greatest pull on those people who are undecided about growing
up; they are college-educated, getting on and even getting up in the
world, but with a bit of the hippie-dippie counterculture clinging to them
still -- yuppies, they have been called, the initials YUP standing for
young urban professionals.

Fred Shapiro


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