[Ads-l] Antedating of "Wacko"

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Wed Aug 23 01:34:26 UTC 2017


On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 9:08 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
wrote:

> wacko (OED 1977)
>
>
> 1965 _The Realist_ 1 Feb. 22/2 (Independent Voices)  Hey nures [sic], you
> better give him a shot or something, he's goin' wacko!
>

Good cite for the adjective. In '06, I provided antedatings for "wacko" as
a noun going back to 1938 (also OED2 1977).

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-January/056632.html

--bgz

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