square from Delaware (1939)

[Baker, John]

        And, of course, the play On Strivers Row, where "square" was
used both with and without "Delaware," is still earlier, if the 1938
date for this usage can be confirmed, see
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0809A&L=ADS-L&P=R2860.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 9:49 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: square from Delaware (1939)

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Tom Dalzell <slangman at pacbell.net>
wrote:
>
> Sometimes we neglect the obvious - present company included.
>
> Square: an un-hip person.
> Cab Calloway: The New Cab Calloway's Cat-Ologue (Revised 1939 edition)

Yep, I missed this in my first go-round, but it came up in a related
thread on Sep. 4:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0809A&L=ADS-L&P=R7210

I'm still wondering if "square from Delaware" could have preceded plain
old "square", or at least brought the unhip sense to prominence.


--Ben Zimmer

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

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