[Ads-l] Origin of exclamation Great Scott discussed at Slate

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Today Forrest Wickman at Slate thoughtfully explored the origin of the
exclamation "Great Scott". Jesse Sheidlower, Michael Quinion, Fred
Shapiro, and Garson O'Toole and others were mentioned /
acknowledged.The character Doc Brown used the expression in the movie
series "Back to the Future".

Website: Slate
Column Name: Lexicon Valley - A Blog About Language
Article: Great Scott! Who Was Scott? The Origin of Doc Brown’s
Favorite Phrase, Explained.
Author: Forrest Wickman
Timestamp: October 21 2015 8:02 AM

Short Link: http://slate.me/1ZXEMSu

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/10/21/great_scott_who_was_scott_on_back_to_the_future_day_the_origin_of_doc_brown.html

When Forrest contacted me I pointed him to resources like Michael
Quinion's excellent article:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gre4.htm

Barry Popik has done valuable work on "Great Scott" as mentioned by
Fred at Freakonomics:
http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/08/who-first-said-great-scott-and-who-is-scott/

Back in August 2011 I posted to the list the earliest instance of the
exclamation "Great Scott" in 1856. The OED entry was updated in
September 2013 and the 1856 cite was listed first; apparently it is
still the earliest known.
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-August/111173.html

Garson

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