incongruity was Re: Judas H. Priest

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Thu Dec 21 00:28:23 UTC 2006


OED has 1955 for this particular sense of "loser".

"LET'S TALK IT OVER!" [advice column] Alma Whitaker
Los Angeles Times; Mar 5, 1939; pg. D6 col 1.
"People have to be taught music from earliest youth . . .  I feel
frightfully sorry for such a loser!"



>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      incongruity was Re: Judas H. Priest
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> On incongruity, I noticed "loser" used in "Santa Claus Is
> Coming to Town" (1970 if I read the Roman numeral date
> correctly". The Winter Warlock says -- "I still had some
> magic in me. I guess I'm not a loser after all."
>
> I know that I've seen this year after year, but that's the
> first time I noticed "loser."
>
> ---Amy West
>
> >Date:    Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:48:52 -0600
> >From:    "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> >Subject: Judas H. Priest
> >
> >I was watching Sunset Boulevard the other night, and the
> subject phrase
> >popped out of Jack Webb.  I believe Barry Popik has pushed
> this back to
> >the 1800's, so this isn't an antedating, but it was sort of
> incongruous.
> >My mental image of Webb is Joe Friday, who is one squared-away dude.
> >But Webb does have a background in Jazz (he was married to
> Julie London
> >for  a while), so maybe his character in SB is more true to life.
>
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