[Ads-l] Origins of Trump Epithet

[Laurence Horn]

> On Feb 28, 2018, at 10:01 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Used before April 10, 1888.

By someone with true prophetic powers...

>  Whether it was originally used by Graydon Carter or not, he was quoted as supporting the characterization.
> 
> 
> From - Donald Trump called 'short fingered vulgarian' (Boston Globe) in the News-Journal (Mansfield, Ohio), April 10, 1988, page 13<https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17882453/newsjournal/>.
> 
> "A visitor has asked why Spy bothers paying $60,000 to fact-checkers, and yet publishes recklessly insulting epithets - like "short fingered vulgarian" - to describe its favorite targets - like real estate mogul Donald Trump.  'There's no factual problem,' insists Graydon Carter, one of the magazine's three founders, staring down at his own full-length fingers.  'Trump has short fingers, and he's a vulgarian.  I think the checkers did their job admirably.'"
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 6:40:47 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Origins of Trump Epithet
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Origins of Trump Epithet
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> An epithet that has been applied to Donald Trump ("short-fingered vulgarian=
> from Queens") is said to have been coined by Graydon Carter in Spy Magazin=
> e in 1988, but the details of the coinage are a bit elusive.  Is anyone abl=
> e to confirm for me which 1988 issue of Spy introduced this phrase, and was=
> it used in an article by Carter or in a parodic advertisement appearing in=
> the magazine without Carter's byline?
> 
> 
> Fred Shapiro
> 
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