to "graduate college"

[Victor Steinbok]

Hmm... Made me think of graduated cylinders...

     VS-)

On 2/16/2012 7:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> 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

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