_camerista_ OED: "No dictionary entries found for ‘camerista’."

[Laurence Horn]

On May 3, 2013, at 6:28 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Aug. 30, 1862, the Times of London commented, “America swarms with the
> members of the mighty tribe of
>
> cameristas,
>
> and the civil war has developed their business in the same way that it has
> given an impetus to the manufacturers of metallic air-tight coffins and
> embalmers of the dead.”
>
> http://goo.gl/ZLF6S
>
> Of course, an examination of the actual newspaper may reveal a different
> reading, but, WTF?
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> "Apropos of nothing," to reprise a once-common phrase, I'd been under the
> impression that _barista_ was the the first and only -ista word in English
> that had ever appeared in the popular press.
>
The OED's cites for "fashionista" include a couple from the mid-90s from such periodicals as "Time Out N.Y." and "Entertainment Weekly", and my impression is that it's been around fairly steadily since.  No doubt "Sandinista" played a role, as I'm sure has been hypothesized here.   But that civil war took place somewhat later than the one raging in 1862.

LH

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