Walk the Walk

[M Covarrubias]

On May 1, 2009, at 3:38 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Walk the Walk
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>
> Just to clarify... what Neal was looking for wasn't "walk the
> walk/talk the talk," which undoubtedly goes back several decades, but
> the compressed "walk the talk" version, which appears to be much newer
> (notwithstanding Google misdatings). Unless those '50s DJ's were
> walking the talk too?
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>

true, his primary interest is the compression. but he does mention the
relevance of comparing earliest appearances. two search parties might
be a good idea.

michael

>
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 1:48 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Walk the Walk
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>>
>> I'm with Michael, though I know very well that the pros don't accept
>> personal experience as evidence. I remember the late, great Al Benson
>> quite well. Saint Louis's black DJ's practically worshipped at his
>> feet. Note, also, that this fits well with Wilson's Claim: that, back
>> in the day, it took about ten years for black usages to leap the
>> color
>> bar into print.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>> P.S. Michael, did you ever hear of Freddie Goree? We knew each as
>> children in Saint Louis. He's one of the DJ's featured in a book held
>> by Widener Library on Chicago's black-music-on-radio scene. -W.
>> –––
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint
>> to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> -----
>> -Mark Twain
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 10:03 AM, Michael Sheehan
>> <Wordmall at aol.com> wrote:
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>>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Michael Sheehan <Wordmall at AOL.COM>
>>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Walk the Walk
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>>>
>>> In a message dated 4/30/09 12:01:58 AM, LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>> ubject: "Walk the talk" antedated to 1957
>>>>
>>>> Today's headline said the now-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter will
>>>> have to
>>>> "walk the talk" when it comes to voting, which reminded me of the
>>>> possible
>>>> idiom-blending -- or idiom-compression -- of "talk the talk, and
>>>> walk the
>>>> walk" or variants thereof. I see that the earliest attestation
>>>> noted here
>>>> is
>>>> one from 1984, found by Ben Zimmer:
>>>>
>>>> Seattle Times, Dec 3, 1984, p. C11 (Factiva)
>>>> The blackboard in the Juanita Rebels' Kingdome locker room said
>>>> it all
>>>> after
>>>> their 41-27 Class AAA title game win over South Kitsap. "WE
>>>> WALKED OUR
>>>> TALK."
>>>>
>>>> This was in a 2005 message, from the days before Google Books.
>>>> Here are a
>>>> couple of pre-1984 examples I found there:
>>>>
>>>> Company Execs and S&H Must Walk the Talk
>>>> (Occupational Hazards. By Health Reference Center, 1962, p. 11)
>>>>
>>>> The challenge for the government will be to walk the talk and be
>>>> transparent
>>>> and non-political in its decision-making.
>>>> (Middle East Economic Digest, 1957, p. 51)
>>>>
>>>> These examples were pretty isolated; the 1957 one was the only
>>>> one from
>>>> the
>>>> 50s, even after checking for "walking", "walked" and "walks".
>>>> Example were
>>>> much more plentiful in the 1970s and 1980s. I haven't checked to
>>>> compare
>>>> with the earliest appearance of "walk the walk" and "talk the
>>>> talk".
>>>>
>>>> Neal Whitman
>>>> Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
>>>> Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
>>>>
>>>
>>> I can take it back to 1952 based on personal experience. Al Benson
>>> was a
>>> very popular DJ on a Chicago R & B radio station (WGES?). One of
>>> his sponsors
>>> was Pekin Cleaners, and Al's standard spiel was, "You gotta walk
>>> that walk
>>> and talk that talk, because if you ain't Pekinized, you ain't
>>> recognized."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
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