weenie, wonkie (1955), wonk (1956)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=489487
>Harvard Crimson, October 18, 1955
>Three articles billed by Holiday as "the most infuriating ever published"
>probably will arouse little wrath when the magazine reaches Square
>newsstands this morning.
>Ostensibly an explanation of the "naturally superior" Ivy intellect for
>people from west of the Alleghanies, the articles vary from a serious
>appraisal of the Ivy League education to a less high-minded account of the
>social life of Harvard "wonkies" and their Princeton and Yale
>counterparts, "ayools" and "weenies."

Arnold Zwicky notes in an email that "ayools" is probably a mis-scanning
of "tools", which he recalls being used at Princeton in 1958-62.

What's the earliest cite for "tool" meaning 'socially inept person' (to
use Connie Eble's definition in _Slang and Sociability_)?  Checking
_AmSp_, I find a mention of it all the way back in 1932:

-----
"More Stanford Expressions", John Ashton Shidler
American Speech, Vol. 7, No. 6 (Aug., 1932), pp. 436-7
Some very interesting words and phrases are used during fraternity
rushing. After the freshman have left the house and the day's rushing is
over the fraternity brothers meet to discuss the frosh and eliminate those
who are undesirable. ... A "tool" is a boy who is not desirable and one on
whom time is being wasted.
-----

--Ben Zimmer