Itty bitty...

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/25/07, Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Anyone know of the use of "itty bitty titty committee" prior to 1992? I
> found one from Google Groups (nice new look) from '92.

Tantalizingly close, from a 1983 article by Martin Gardner in _Word
Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics_:

"And have you heard of IBTA, an organization opposed to topless
swimsuits? The letters stand for the Itty Bitty Titty Association."

The article ("Kickshaws")  also appears in the anthology _Gardner's
Whys & Wherefores_:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1573927449/


--Ben Zimmer

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