Antedating of "Pinko"

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

Interesting. Joseph J. Firebaugh, in "The Vocabulary of 'Time' Magazine,"
Am. Speech, 15, 3 (Oct. 1940) gives two items containing 'pinko-' from Time
in 1926: 'pinko-liberal' (Jan. 7) and 'pinko-political' (June 14). On
the basis of these I had assumed that the '-o' of 'pinko' arose from
its use as a pseudo-pseudo-prefix (after pseudo-prefixes like
'Greco-', 'Anglo-' and 'pseudo-' itself) based on the use of 'pink'
in this sense, which goes back much further. If Fred's 1925 cite of
'pinko'  really is the first use of the form, this hypothesis would
seem to be wrong -- but then, why the '-o'?

Geoff Nunberg

>pinko (OED, adj. 2., 1957)

>1925 _Time_ 29 June  The gulf that yawns today between Wall Street and
>Vesey Street, where the now pinko Nation is published, was narrower in
>those days.

>Fred Shapiro


>pinko (OED, adj. 2., 1957)

>1925 _Time_ 29 June  The gulf that yawns today between Wall Street and
>Vesey Street, where the now pinko Nation is published, was narrower in
>those days.

>Fred Shapiro