"kicky" antedating

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 25, 2004, at 2:06 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      "kicky" antedating
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> From OED
> 3. Providing 'kicks', exciting, lively. N. Amer. colloq
>
> first cite in OED is 1968.
>
> From "The Adventures of Bob Hope" comic book, #99, Jun-Jul 1966
>
> "Me!  Super-Hip!  That Wild Card in the Dull Deck of Destiny!  That
> Kicky
> Kid in a Cosmos of Human Cubes!"  From the story "Super-Hope Meets
> Super-Hip!" written by Arnold Drake, page 4, panel 5.
>
> online at:
> http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/oddball/closeup.php?
> image=bobhope9
> 9-transformation.jpg
>

Singing commercial on radio station KXLW - the first in St. Louis to
cater to the local black community - in the mid- 'Forties through the
'Fifties:

"Fashions styled by Ricky!
That's why they are kicky!
S-o-l-s! S-o-l-s!
[Spoken:]
'Ricky's (sic) of Hollywood' at Sol's Clothing Store!"

"Kicky" is so old that it's almost unbelievable that it didn't appear
in print until the mid-'Sixties. Well, maybe not. It took as long as
that for "get down to the real nitty-gritty," "knock yourself out,"
"cop a squat," etc. to leap the racial divide. Oh, well.

-Wilson Gray