Fairly new word(?): "exoneree"

[Laurence Horn]

>When I checked Lexis-Nexis for this word, I found 23 English citations, 16
>of which were older than 2/24/03, with the oldest being from the July 27,
>1992 edition of _Roll Call_:
>
>Much as we expected, Judge Malcolm Wilkey, the special counsel in the House
>Bank investigation, says he'll issue a list of Members he deems worthy of
>exoneration just as the election enters the home stretch - in late August.
>This procedure is perfectly designed so that those who aren't on the list
>will almost certainly be suspected by the public of being wrongdoers and
>will be pummeled by their challengers. Will the non-exonerees be given their
>day in court before the Nov. 3 election?
>
>Paul
>

Ah, I restricted my search to "major papers", on the faulty
assumption that this would pick up hits as old as any, but you've
shown that this isn't the case by antedating the Washington Post cite
by 9 years.  So much for its WOTY candidacy.  In the words of the
late Emily Litella, never mind.

Larry