[Ads-l] Query: Was "on the same page" in use in 1971?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 12:21 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 12:10 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>>
>> Was figurative "on the same page" in use in 1971?  Today I received the
>> following query:
>> '...But I have an etymological question for you.  In the 2015 film The
>> Stanford Prison Experiment which I saw at Leach [Theatre] tonight,
>> the expression "on the same page" was used by a group of
>> colleagues  supposedly discussing in real time - 1971 - the
>> experiment.  I never heard the expression used until more recently
>> and associate  it with computer-speak.  The expression typical of
>> the era would be "on the same wavelength" to the best of my
>> recollection.  It struck me as an anachronism.'
>
> OED dates "on the same page" to 1979. I ruled it an anachronism when
> it appeared on "Mad Men" in an episode set in 1963.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25FOB-onlanguage-t.html
> https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/mad-men-capturing-the-sound-of-the-60s/

Barry Popik sends along a link to his "on the same page" page with
some earlier cites, from 1964-69.

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/on_the_same_page_teamwork_saying/

Still anachronistic for "Mad Men," but perhaps OK for "The Stanford
Prison Experiment."

--bgz

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org