"Wop" in 1908?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Charlie, GB finds several exx. of _wop lingo_ from 1912 on, not always
carefully restricted to Italian.

JL

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Wop" in 1908?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4/28/2010 09:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Good one.
> >
> >Cleveland *and* N.Y. within a few months?
> >
> >Interesting.
>
> I wonder -- Where was the marathon conducted?  Is the Cleveland
> article a reprint from somewhere else, e.g. New York?
>
> Perhaps this is less significant since earlier dates -- 1906 instead
> of 1908 -- have been discovered.
>
> Joel
>
>
> >JL
> >
> >On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Garson O'Toole
> ><adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
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> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: "Wop" in 1908?
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Wonderful detective work finding the instance with the alternate
> > > spelling for wop. Here is a 1908 cite in which "the Wop" is used to
> > > designate an Italian long-distance runner, Dorando Pietri.
> > >
> > > 1908 December 16, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Longboat Wins Marathon Race,
> > > Page 8, Column 4, Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)
> > >
> > > Plainly the Indian showed that he had run the Italian off his feet.
> > > ... when MacFarland fired the shot at 9:14 that started the Indian and
> > > the Wop on their journey of twenty-six miles and 380 yards.
> > >
> > > Garson
> > >
> > > On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > > Subject:      Re: "Wop" in 1908?
> > > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >
> > > > The cite provided by M-W is accurate, but I believe it represents an
> > > > obsolete, broader sense of "wop," more or less equivalent to current
> > > "jerk."
> > > >
> > > > The earliest ex. to hand that unmistakably designates Italians (OED:
> > > 1910):
> > > >
> > > > 1909 _N.Y. Times_ (Feb. 23) 4: A crowd of men and boys followed four
> or
> > > five
> > > > Italians along Canal Street last night, tormenting them by calling
> them
> > > > "Waps" and "Ginneys" [both sic]. Finally near Orchard Street the
> Italians
> > > > turned to fight.
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > > truth."
> > > >
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