emotional roller-coaster

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Sun, Jan 03, 2010 at 09:12:18AM -0500, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> I don't see this cliche' in OED, but I could be blind.  Anyway:
>
> 1936 _Time_  (Aug. 10)
> http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762296-1,00.html#ixzz0bYfD9HN9
> :
> Bill stuck to his role as friend of the family, while Jock and Mary went
> careening up & down the economic and emotional roller-coaster on which the
> rest of the world was riding.
>
> GB indicates that the phrase became popular after WWII.  _Time_ appears not
> to have used it again for decades."Roller-coaster of emotions" does not show
> up in GB until 1971.

The revised OED entry for this term will have several
different figurative senses, with the one encompassing
"emotional roller-coaster" first attested in 1901. That phrase
itself isn't separated out, but it is found in the quotations.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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