[Ads-l] YOLO in OED update for Sept 2016 - evidence in 1993

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Mon Sep 12 23:52:44 UTC 2016


YOLO is listed in the September 2016 update for the Oxford English
Dictionary with a nice fist citation in 1996:

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/37827540

[Begin excerpt]
YOLO, int. and adj.
Origin: Formed within English, as an acronym. Etymon: you only live
once at live v.1 Phrases 19
. . .
1996   Atlanta Jrnl. & Constit. 16 June l 1/4   [They] live on a
secluded, 50-acre spread Hart calls ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once).
[End excerpt]

Ben Zimmer and Barry Popik found intriguing earlier evidence dated
1993 in a U.S. trademark database. Ben wrote the following in a Word
Routes column:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/further-adventures-of-yolo/

[Begin excerpt]
YOLO has been in use for commercial purposes since at least 1993, when
a trademark was filed for YOLO Gear. (The clothing line's logo gave
the full expression as the tagline.)
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to the database front-end and the reference number.

United States Patent and Trademark Office
Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR)
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/
Reference number: 74406073

The "Application Filing Date" was June 28, 1993. The image of the logo shows:

YOLO GEAR
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!

Of course, it is possible that the OED does not accept this type of evidence.

Here is a link to analysis on the Quote Investigator website. Feedback welcome.

You Only Live Once – YOLO
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/05/24/live-once/

Garson

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list