Paul Harvey and language

[victor steinbok]

Someone forwarded a link to a Snopes debunking of a particular story that
has been circulating around the "intertubes" for a few years and I
recognized as either being one of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story
stories or one that was closely modeled after that template. Predictably,
the story was patently untrue--as were most of Harvey's stories, including
many that he reported as straight news. But let's skip speaking ill of the
dead (although I spoke the same way about him when he was alive) and focus
on words. Specifically, Wiki article mentions that Harvey "enriched" the
English language by coining at least three famous words--skyjack[ing],
Reaganomics and guesstimate. My gut reaction was that the claim--like most
of Harvey's own reports--was patently false. Of course, I could be wrong.

Both MWOL and Online Etymology Dictionary (OEtD) report that "skyjack" was
first used in 1961, apparently coined by the NY Mirror in its headlines. As
far as I know, Harvey did not work for the NY Mirror--he was a radio
broadcast journalist, known more for his voice and seemless transition
between news, advertising and fiction. I suppose, it is possible that Harvey
coined the term which was then picked up by the Mirror, but I found no
evidence of it. OEtD reports that the /noun/ "guesstimate" has been in use
since 1906--hardly something that Harvey could have contributed, although
that still leaves the possibility that he might have verbed it. Again, I
found no records other than claims in his obituaries. Reaganomics is more
recent and terminology quickly turned viral soon after inauguration (in
early 1981) so I did not even try to look this one up. But I am hoping
someone else might have better records on this.

In any case, I just wanted to seed this investigation, as I will be
traveling for the next week and won't be able to do much on this subject. I
hope this is something that can be settled definitively. Good hunting!

VS-)

PS: A quick search on "coined Reaganomics" revealed something interesting,
although not about the coinage. It seems a LOT of people use "coined" as
"that someone called" or just "called". Note that the search is for two
separate words, although proximity appears to push them higher in the search
hierarchy.


In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and his cabinet unleashed his style of economics
> that was *coined Reaganomics*.



Ronald Reagan's economic policies of retrenchment, tax cuts, budget deficits
> and monetarism, *coined* by the media as *Reaganomics*, had both positive
> and *...*


Later *coined Reaganomics*, the expectation was that reduced tax rates and
> regulation would actually result in more revenue for the Government *...*


A study by the libertarian CATO Institute assessed the supply-side economic
> policies during the Reagan administration – *coined* “*Reaganomics*.


This new idea *coined* '*Reaganomics*' was that the poor would now provide
> for the rich.
>

There are so many of these that I see no point tracking the links. I, for
one, find this bizarre.

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