Antedating of "Chocoholic"
Douglas G. Wilson
douglas at NB.NET
Mon Mar 19 18:06:15 UTC 2012
On 3/19/2012 7:06 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Shapiro, Fred"<fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Chocoholic"
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>
> Outstanding antedating by Garson. This 1961 citation is particularly significant because, I believe, it puts "chocoholic" earlier than "workaholic" as the first known example of the "-aholic"/"-oholic" pseudo-suffix. (As such, it is also an antedating of the OED entry for "-aholic.")
--
From N'archive:
----------
_Daily Mail_, Charleston WV, 28 March 1954: p. 37:
<<[title] A 'Tobaccoholic' Goes On Wagon / ... / I am a confirmed
"tobaccoholic." That's like an alcoholic, only it ain't alcohol -- it's
that nasty weed called tobacco. / ....>>
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_Hutchinson [KS] News-Herald_, 28 Dec. 1955: p. 14:
<<[title] What Do You Do With A Little Girl Becoming A Milkaholic? / ...
/ We must face it. Our daughter, age two, is a "milkaholic". / A
milkaholic, you see, is a little on the order of an alcoholic. The basis
of the ailment -- either type -- is supposed to be a vague emotional
disturbance that causes the victim to seek relief in the bottle. / ....>>
[apparently the little girl demands her bottle after any distressing
incident]
----------
_Ada [OK] Weekly News_, 14 April 1955: p. 4:
<<Ran across a new term. It's pretty rough on folks trying devilishly
hard to reduce. Anyway, here are the words of William Feather: "A
sugarholic will do anything to reduce, except give up chocolate bars,
rich desserts, and cream in coffee plus two lumps of sugar.">>
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I can't immediately find the original of the William Feather quotation
in the "sugarholic" example above.
-- Doug Wilson
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