Antedating of "Gizmo"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Evidently lifted from the Nov., 1942, issue of the USMC magazine _The
Leatherneck_, as in HDAS.

Goldsboro is roughly sixty miles from Camp Lejeune. It is likely that the
magazine had just become available.

Early exx. of "gizmo" are associated with the Marine Corps.

JL

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 10:44 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Antedating of "Gizmo"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> gizmo (OED 1943)
>
> 1942 _Greensboro_ (NC) _Record_ 14 Oct. 2 (GenealogyBank)  Turning to the
> l=
> ighter side today, maybe you would be interested in some Marine Corps
> verna=
> cular. ... GIZMO -- When you need a word for something in a hurry and
> can't=
>  think of one, it's a gizmo.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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