Coinage of "Carjacking" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Baker, John]

Wikipedia's source for the claim is "Pulitzer, Lisa Beth. Crime On Deadline. New York, New York: Boulevard Books, 1996."  That appears to be a paperback anthology of newspaper crime reporting, now out of print but with used copies readily available.  I don't expect that the level of linguistic scholarship is particularly high, but it may provide some detail as to the coinage claim.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 3:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Coinage of "Carjacking" (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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I'm always skeptical of claims of the first, or of coinage, especially
when the claimer is Wikipedia.  Did Bowles and Mitchell pick the term up
from cops who were working the crimes?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 11:06 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Coinage of "Carjacking"
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Coinage of "Carjacking"
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> -
>
> Wikipedia states: "The term was coined by reporter Scott Bowles and EJ
Mitc=
> hell, an editor with The Detroit
News<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Detr=
> oit_News>.  The News first used the term in an August 28, 1991 report
on th=
> e murder of Ruth Wahl, a 22-year-old Detroit drugstore cashier who was
kill=
> ed when she would not surrender her Suzuki
Sidekick<http://en.wikipedia.org=
> /wiki/Suzuki_Sidekick>, and in an investigative report examining the
rash o=
> f what police called at the time "robbery armed unlawful driving away
an au=
> tomobile", plaguing Detroit."
>
> This usage is a few days earlier than the earliest citation in OED.
>
> Fred Shapiro
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carjacking#cite_note-1>
>
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