whack 'whacked'

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 16, 2004, at 11:53 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 16, 2004 at 02:07:00PM -0500, Grant Barrett wrote:
>> On Mar 16, 2004, at 13:47, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>> this was new to me, but then i often come in late to the great opera
>>> of
>>> language change.  what we have here is clearly an adjective "whack"
>>> --
>>> note modification by degree "how" here and by other adverbs in
>>> examples
>>> like the following, from google searches:
>>
>> Yeah, it's an oldy, but it's still in use. The earliest cite I see is
>> 1987. Early cites are usually spelled "wack," and come from hip-hop or
>> black America. Both spellings are still around.

*very* much in use, and now by huge numbers of people who aren't
african american or particularly close to african american culture.

> The famous Keith Haring "Crack is Wack" mural in Harlem,
> which someone else mentioned, is from 1986. There's a
> _wack_ in a 1986 Salt N Pepa song as well. I don't have
> any materials handy but I'm pretty sure it's a few years
> earlier still.

well, these first responses, by grant barrett, steve boatti, and jesse
sheidlower at least suggest where to look for early occurrences.  my
questions about the details of the history and usage remain, of course.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)