"lib"

Tue Jun 20 15:30:11 UTC 2006

James F. McKeown "The Goodell Purge Move" [letter to editor] The
Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973); Oct 13, 1970;
pg. A15
"After viewing the shambles that Mr. Agnew has helped to create in Sen.
Charles Goodell's New York race, there can be no doubt that now is the
time for all good Republicans -- radical libs and reactionary pigs alike
--  to come to the aid of their party by denouncing Mr. Agnew's latest
adventure."


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jesse Sheidlower
> Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 6:41 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "lib"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "lib"
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> On Mon, Jun 19, 2006 at 11:25:13PM -0700, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> > I'm trying to track the emergence of "lib" for (small-l)
> "liberal" in
> > the American political context. The earliest cite I've
> found is from a
> > September 30, 1982 William Safire column in the NYT
> entitled "The Libs
> > are Coming," which contains the sentence, " Clutching their
> > compassion, commitment and concern, the Libs are coming!"
> (The item
> > "radic-lib" seems to go back further.)
>
> It's probably silly of me to say anything before Fred and Ben
> have had their turn, but I would point out that OED's entry
> Lib n.(3), chiefly for big-L "liberal", does have this
> small-l quote in a U.S. political context:
>
>   1973 _Washington Post_ 5 Jan. B1/1 He seems to think the
>   senatorial libs just couldn't get it through their thick heads
>   that in reality the Family Assistance Plan was another three
>   banana jackpot for bureaucratic liberalism.
>
> Best,
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
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