M-W and "fantabulous"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/19/06, Joanne M. Despres <jdespres at merriam-webster.com> wrote:
>
> 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.

My apologies for making a mountain out of a molehill. I realize that
the discrepancy between what the newsletter says MW has for
"fantabulous" and what's readily available from Proquest is not great
(1953 vs. 1957 -- the discrepancy for "ginormous" is more worrisome).
I just found it odd that the newsletter authoritatively states that
Dec. 1957 is the date of MW's "oldest example," when it's relatively
easy to find about a dozen antedatings. But such are the perils of
lexicography in the age of Proquest and Newspaperarchive, I suppose.


--Ben Zimmer

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