Antedating of "Bell Curve"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson, the word I know is "curve-buster." It means somebody who does so well on a test that the prof won't "grade on the curve."  I may have had only one exx., so it might not be in HDAS.

Is this the same as "curve-breaker"?

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Bell Curve"
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On Apr 7, 2005, at 4:19 PM, Fred Shapiro wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Fred Shapiro
> Subject: Antedating of "Bell Curve"
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> --------
>
> bell curve (OED 1970)
>
> Within recent years a tendency has developed to require that the
> distribution of efficiency ratings shall conform to the normal
> frequency
> or bell curve of distribution.
> Lewis Meriam, Public Personnel Problems from the Standpoint of
> the
> Operating Officer 50 (1938) (Questia)
>
> Fred Shapiro

Good eye, Fred! The term has to be older than 1970. People were already
talking about the bell curve, breaking the curve, and curve-breakers
when I was in high school in the '50's.

-Wilson

>
>
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> Fred R. Shapiro Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE DICTIONARY OF
> QUOTATIONS
> Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
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