anecdata

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 10:30 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
> Wiktionary and UD are way forward on this one. Oddly enough, so is
> Longman http://goo.gl/7M2pk .  WordSpy has it back to March 6, 1992
> (nothing earlier in GNA--Westlaw or Lexis might do better). 31400 raw
> ghits
>
> The hook is here http://goo.gl/6qwGj  (just so you don't think I
> randomly pick words out of obscure dictionaries)

Wordspy's 1992 first cite is from a MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour appearance
by Paul Solman, the show's longtime economics commentator (and also,
as it happens, the husband of former Boston Globe language columnist
Jan Freeman).

http://wordspy.com/words/anecdata.asp

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org