[Ads-l] greatest thing since sliced bread (1951)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US)]

It can go back one day:
_Minneapolis Morning Tribune_ 9 Mar 1951 p 6 col 1 [newspapers.com]



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
> Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2017 2:31 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: greatest thing since sliced bread (1951)
> 
> 
> ----
> 
> Barry Popik located the valuable 1951 citation and shared it here:
> 
> Entry from September 12, 2016
> “The greatest thing since sliced bread”
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/the_greatest_thing_since_sliced_bread
> 
> 
> On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 3:25 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > OED's entry for "bread" hasn't been updated for a while. The earliest
> > example given for "the best (or greatest, etc.) thing since sliced
> > bread" is from 1969. Here it is from 1951:
> >
> > News-Journal (Mansfield, Ohio), Mar. 10, 1951, p. 3, col. 7 Dorothy
> > Kilgallen, "The Voice of Broadway" (syndicated column) "He is the
> > greatest thing since sliced bread," she says of Mr. Granger.
> > [Kilgallen quoting her sister about Farley Granger in "King Solomon's
> > Mines"]
> >
> > (There are more literal examples from the '30s and '40s for phrases
> > like "the newest thing since sliced bread" appearing in advertisements
> > for baked goods.)
> >
> > --bgz
> >

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