to "graduate college"

[Jonathan Lighter]

A point well taken.

There are a fair number of exx. of both phrases ("...college" and
"...high school") going back to the late 19th C., but only (AFAICT) in
the context of the telegraphic style common to biographical
dictionaries.

Here, however, is an early and enlightening ex. in a running text:

1919 _The Headgear Worker_ (May) 128: I know a man in our organization
who never graduated high school or university, who never even
graduated public school, and he has more intelligence and will be able
to do better organizational work than perhaps a man who has graduated
a [sic] university.

I'll leave further antedatings to others.

JL

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 6:43 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ronald Butters <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: to "graduate college"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wouldn't one expect to find "graduated high school" in greater numbers than "graduated college," especially before1940?
> On Feb 16, 2012, at 9:45 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Somebody's crazy, because I can't find this widely carped-at
>> transitive usage in OED.
>>
>> Nor has it ever been discussed here, except fleetingly.
>>
>> It's almost impossible to search for in NewspaperArchive.  I do find
>> it frequently and suddenly in GB starting just after WWII.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
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