[Ads-l] nontroversy; to resolve

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Fri Dec 9 17:56:33 UTC 2016


See below... Wordspy has a 1998 cite from the New York Post.

On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 12:22 PM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:

>
> _Philadelphia Daily News_ 21 Jan 2003 p32 col 1
> "As a nation's thoughts turn to the work and words of the Rev. Martin
> Luther King Jr., filmmaker Spike Lee told hundreds of teen-agers at the
> Lauderhill, Fla., Boys & Girls Club Saturday that he is concerned  young
> people will first learn about King and civil-rights heroine Rosa Parks from
> a character  in last year's comedy "Barbershop."
> Hasn't this "nontroversy" burned itself out yet?"
>
> Newspapers.com has other examples that predate this one, but they all
> appear to be typographical errors for "controversy".
>
> > "Nontroversy" came up here back in 2010...
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-June/100523.html
> >
> > Wordspy dates it to 1998.
> >
> > http://wordspy.com/index.php?word=nontroversy
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 7:36 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > CNN: "Controversy...or nontroversy?"
> > >
> > > 14,000 Googlits.
> > >
>
>

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