M-W and "fantabulous"

[Joanne M. Despres]

The newsletter writer is basing her research on C11.  She doesn't
have access to newspaperarchive or ProQuest, nor is it her job to
do original dating research for us.  She works for NPR in upstate
New York and writes our "Word for the Wise" pieces.

I'll offer her some extra help if you really think she's that far off the
mark.  But you might want to keep in mind that most first
occurrences are provisional anyway, until something newer and
earlier turns up.

Joanne

On 19 Jan 2006, at 4:22, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> Another baffling item in the Merriam-Webster online newsletter...
>
> -----
> http://www.word.com/collegiate/archives/2006/01/from_the_mail_s_6.html#fantabulous
> Our oldest example dates from 1957, in an advertisement in the Science
> News Letter for December 7. The ad is for a microscope with an Eastman
> f/2.5 7-inch Aero Ektar lens. The top of the ad reads, "A Fantabulous
> Buy!"
> -----
>
> A minute or two on Proquest finds the word in a Chicago Tribune ad for
> Delta-C&S Airlines from June 23, 1953, with three additional exx in
> Joan Winchell's LA Times column from 1955-56. Newspaperarchive turns
> up another half dozen exx from 1956.
>
> I'm sensing that the newsletter writer might be a bit out of the loop
> at the M-W office...
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org