[Ads-l] Origin of the term "Cry Wolof"

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Tue Oct 6 17:59:27 UTC 2015


On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Z Rice wrote:
>
> In discussing the term "Cry Wolof", I realized that it's origin is being
> attributed to two different people. I've been told that the term was made
> popular by Jesse Sheidlower, while a few ADS posts (I believe even Gary
> Wilson on the mailing list) seem to attribute its origin to Laurence Horn.
>
> Does anyone know who originated the term and when?

I believe Larry gets credit -- he used it in an ADS-L post on Dec. 6, 2004:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2004-December/043326.html

Then Jesse popularized it in his Slate piece published two days later:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_minute/2004/12/crying_wolof.html

--bgz

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