weenie, wonkie (1955), wonk (1956)

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has "a dull tool" as far back as ca1700, though in a somewhat broader sense.

JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: weenie, wonkie (1955), wonk (1956)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arnold's dating looks good to me. In the early 60's one of the kids
my brother hung around with was nicknamed "the tool" by his buddies.
It had the sense given here, and I was aware of it earlier. It was
obvious to us that it was derived from "tool" = "penis," and used
much in the same way that other penile synonyms were, to belittle or
discredit the character of one so designated. It appeared to be a
milder rebuke than many of the others (e.g., prick, dick), perhaps on
a par with "dork."

dInIs



>On Wed, 23 Feb 2005, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
>> 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:
>
>When I was a student at MIT in the 1970s, "tool" and "nerd" were the two
>most common terms for a socially maladept student (a category encompassing
>nearly all MIT students). "Geek" and "grind" were not used very much
>there.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>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 http://quotationdictionary.com
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu


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