Bomb

[Jonathan Lighter]

Jesse, I hate it when you cite my own works against me.  But I proactively wrote "at least."

JL

Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
Subject: Re: Bomb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, Mar 14, 2005 at 11:36:55AM -0800, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> Anything truly splendid is currently designated"da [i.e.,
>'the'] bomb" by rap-happy American youth. This has been going
>on since at least 1997.

I can't remember when we discussed this, but the earliest example
I'm aware of of _the bomb_ is from the spoken-word introduction
to the 1975 Parliament song "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)".
There's an example from Greg Tate in 1983 hidden in the HDAS
entry for _the joint_.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED


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