peops = peeps

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:44:39 -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>Usenet finds a 1984 "peeps" in the common hip-hop sense of "people;
>friends; relatives" etc.

The latest batch of OED entries has a cite from 1973:

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1973 M. GORDON & G. GORDON Informant xli. 155 At 7:45 a.m. the ‘peeps’
trooped in yawning.
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>But I remember seeing a couple of exx. of "peops" (sic) = people in circa
>1900 writings.
>
>Any newspaper occurrences findable ?

Here's one, conveniently a century before the OED cite...

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_Morning Oregonian_ (Portland), Oct. 29, 1873, p. 3/2
As there will be no election until next summer, all the ballot boxes which
belong to the several precincts in the county and city have been brought
into the County Clerk's office for safe keeping until they are to be again
used as receptacles in which the popular verdict of the "dear peops" is to
be safely deposited.
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--Ben Zimmer