sneak preview

[Victor Steinbok]

Thank you! This clears up a number of questions I had initially. And, at
the same time, it seems the effort was vindicated, as the date has been
pushed to 1932 on "sneak preview" and to 1937 (or was it 1938) on "sneak".

A couple of other observations. I find it interesting that the wording
in OED2 still reflects the original meaning of a sneak preview,
unmodified over the years. The previews are no longer unannounced and
are no longer an unscheduled part of a regular show. For passes for the
traditional sneak preview in film and television world is now known as
"focus groups" in other venues.

I am also curious if the "transf. and fig." meaning maps squarely on
what I listed as the "second meaning" or on all three (aside from the
original one). I should say that the "second meaning" is really not--it
is simply a migration of the term out of film jargon into more general
usage.

Finally, with respect to the entry for The Coast, vol. 1, the dating is
authentic. I found library records in worldcat that indicate that vol. 1
of The Coast was indeed published in 1937:

> Vol. 1, no. 1 (spring 1937)-Ceased publication with July 1942
> "An unofficial co-operative publication of writers on the San
> Francisco Writers’ Project.
> A magazine of western writing.
I also mentioned that the citation in The Coast was different from the
other ones. Specifically, it refers to "sneak preview cards". I was
first puzzled by the reference--was this a different meaning of "sneak
preview", something like a dry run of a play or a script that's written
on cards? Well, no. The mystery is solved very easily. "Sneak preview
cards" are the opinion sheets that the studios handed out to the
audience to get written responses. The practice still persists--like I
said, focus groups. But what is more intriguing is the fact that there
is a gap in GB for "sneak preview cards"--after the appearance in The
Coast in 1937, the next GB hit is from the 1980s. I don't know if this
is of interest to anyone--and there is no doubt that the term continued
to exist despite the gap. But how is it possible that there have been no
bound publications in nearly 50 years that used the term before coming
back to it? Or is this simply an artifact of Google Books?

VS-)


On 1/27/2010 8:36 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
> On Jan 27, 2010, at 1:06 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> I don't have any references on hand (not even an OED) and this is
>> not a
>> particularly scholarly endeavor because of it, but I was curious when
>> "sneak preview" entered the lexicon. Does OED have an entry? Is
>> there a
>> possible theatre usage that predates film? [It so much easier when
>> someone else originates a query by looking in the OED first!]
>
> OED2 has a sneak- a. entry, with this in it:
>
> sneak preview orig. U.S., a showing of a (usually unnamed) cinematic
> film prior to regular release, to test audience reaction; also transf.
> and fig.; hence sneak-preview v. trans., (a) to show (a film) in a
> sneak preview; (b) to have a sneak preview of (something)
>
> [with cites from 1938 on]
>
> plus, under sneak n.:
>
> U.S. colloq. = sneak preview [with cites from 1941 on]
>
> arnold

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