"Clunker" not in OED?

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is a link into Google Books that shows the word flunker in a
snippet. The journal page is also available in JSTOR:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_eU3AAAAMAAJ&q=bluffer#search_anchor

Here is the JSTOR citation:

Why Is an Examination--And What of It?
Olga Achtenhagen
The English Journal
Vol. 15, No. 4 (Apr., 1926), pp. 285-289
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/802505

On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 6:49 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Clunker" not in OED?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Oops!  But Sarah, how did you get to see the page?  All I can get is
> a Snippet view!
>
> Joel
>
> At 2/19/2011 06:03 PM, Sarah wrote:
>>On 2011-02-19, at 1:55 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> > Subject:      Re: "Clunker" not in OED?
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Well, now on-list instead of just to Fred.  (And how could I ever
>> > have overlooked "cash for clunkers"?)
>> >
>> > The following, alleged by GBooks/Snippet to be 1926 (English Journal,
>> > vol. 15), is I suspect correctly dated (the English Journal
>> > apparently started in 1912):
>> >
>> > "bluffer when he finds among the questions that general type to which
>> > even the class Clunker may attempt a satisfactory reply; it begins
>> > like this: "Describe the wreck of the "; "Name several
>> > characteristics of "; or "Trace the general ... "
>> >
>> > This may be a person as the "thing that is worthless, inferior,
>> > unsuccessful, etc." (the class dunce?).  But more context would help,
>> > and why "Clunker" is capitalized I can't guess.
>> >
>>
>>It actually says "class flunker" if you look at the scanned image of
>>the book itself. (The "fl" ligature is mistaken for a "C.")
>>
>>S.
>>
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