African American, was: "AAVE" (the abbrev. itself)

[Jonathan Lighter]

There's a saying: "When the Emperor has no clothes, find a good-looking Empress."

JL

Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
Subject: Re: African American, was: "AAVE" (the abbrev. itself)
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On Wed, Oct 06, 2004 at 03:01:55PM -0400, Joanne M. Despres wrote:
> FWIW, Frederick Douglass used "African-American" ten years before
> Waring (reportedly) coined "Afro-American."
>
> An Irish fight, and the wickedness of an Irish woman's daughter, can
> never be used as an argument against the fitness of the African
> American to enjoy freedom.
>
> FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPER Rochester, New York, January 13, 1854

We checked this quotation, and it's actually for _Africo
American_, not _African American_.

In any case, and with thanks for these early examples, we do
know the term was _used_ this early (OED has cites from the
1850s for noun and adjective). The question is when it
became generally accepted to the point where it it could
be used (in abbreviated form) as part of the standard
academic lexicon.

Interestingly, I was just having a discussion with a colleague
about this problem--the fact that historical citation research,
and in particular the data available in big databases, can
obscure rather than illumine the real history of terms, because
it can give a false impression of when a usage truly became
current.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED


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