[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Preppy"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe I've said this before, but what is most interesting in such cases is
not the remarkable age of the term, but the fact that decades (in this
case, many decades) evidently had to elapse before it entered common
currency.

"Preppy" doesn't even have the excuse of having being thought coarse or
unprintable.

JL

On Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 2:31 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> I have previously antedated the noun "preppy" (formerly having a 1956
> first use citation in the OED) back to 1928.  Here is a much earlier cite:
>
>
> preppy, n. (OED 1928)
>
> 1880 _Occident_ (Colorado College newspaper) 1 Apr. 17/1 (Elephind)  Now
> the thirsty preppie goes to the hydrant, faint and far; he drinks directly
> from its notes, or takes a Leyden-jar.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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