Antedatings of "Goth" & "Gothic"

[Fred Shapiro]

The OED's first citation for the contemporary meaning of _Goth_ is dated
1986.  The following reference to earlier usage is given by
www.scathe.demon.co.uk/name.htm:

"The first usage of the term 'Goths' to describe the members of the
subculture which I've been able to uncover is in an article by Tom Vague
in the October 1983 re-launch issue of Zig Zag (under Mick Mercer's
editorship).

Describing the audience for Death Cult's Berlin show, he says '...and a
pretty motley crew they are too. Hordes of Goths. It could be London...'"

The same web site also points to a reference antedating the OED's first
use (1983) of the corresponding sense of _Gothic_:

In an interview with Steve Keaton from Sounds in February 1981, Abbo from
UK Decay inadvertently named the goth movement: "he said 'it's gonna be a
movement' and we're going nah, we'll be gone in six months. He said you've
got to get a name for it, it's not dance or alternative or New Pop or
mod... and I remember saying 'we're into the whole Gothic thing'... and we
sat there laughing about how we should have gargoyle shaped records and
only play churches. Course he put it all in the interview.. for six months
everything went quiet then when the album came out everyone was asking
'what's this Gothic thing you're into?' And it's a total joke!"

Fred Shapiro


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   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
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