Still Further Antedating of "Yellow Journalism"

[Shapiro, Fred]

After sending the 1893 citation for "yellow journalism," I had a gnawing feeling that this antedating was "too good [i.e., too early] to be true."  In fact, when I study the article from American Periodical Series, it is clear to me that this is misdated, and is probably properly dated Dec. 7, 1898.

The true coinage of "yellow journalism" appears to be a small headline near the bottom of page 6 of the New York Press, Jan. 31, 1897.  I haven't verified this myself in the original, but I get it from seemingly reliable secondary sources.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Shapiro, Fred [fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2014 8:20 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Still Further Antedating of "Yellow Journalism"

yellow journalism (OED 1898, also OED has sense 3. of yellow, adj. dated 1898)

1893 _Puck_ 7 Dec. 7 (American Periodical Series)  Yellow journalism is a moral offense, but who are the offenders?  Not the newspaper proprietors, who make the most of that full liberty which reputable as well as disreputable papers must have in a free country, but the people who buy their output.

NOTE:  This citation undercuts OED's derivation of "yellow journalism" from a comic strip originating in 1895.

Fred Shapiro

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