[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Preppy"

[Jonathan Lighter]

>  Does this analysis make sense?

Yes. In fact, I thought of something like it myself but wasn't able to ID
the two sub-senses through a quick look at Google Books.

JL

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 7:02 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> > On Oct 26, 2019, at 9:20 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > True, true.
> >
> > But with billions and zillions of printed words available, many of them
> > written by former preppies, how is it that the word has been
> statistically
> > almost nonexistent for most of its lifetime?
> >
> > Beats me.
> >
> > JL
>
> That's both undeniable and inexplicable, I admit. Indeed, I recall that,
> During The War, there was even a prep-school comic-book hero - *not* Frank
> Merriwell - whose name has been on the tip of my tongue since this thread
> began. Like Frank, this guy had no superpowers. He was just twice as good
> as anybody else.
>
> Dick Cole! He was a cadet at the Farr Military Academy, not, strictly
> speaking, a prep school, but close enough for government work.
> http://www.toonopedia.com/dickcole.htm
>
> BTW, thanks to Yalie Frank Merriwell, "Boola Boola" was one of my favorite
> tunes. On the radio program, Frank's dad always sang the song as he drove
> the fam to the Harvard-Yale game.
>
> Candidate for POTY:
> > Maybe it was existent all those years—but inChoate.
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 9:21 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > True, true.
> >
> > But with billions and zillions of printed words available, many of them
> > written by former preppies, how is it that the word has been
> statistically
> > almost nonexistent for most of its lifetime?
> >
> > Beats me.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 11:35 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > "Preppy" doesn't even have the excuse of having being thought coarse
> or
> > > > unprintable.
> > >
> > > True, but it's also not a word that would have fallen trippingly from
> the
> > > tongues of the lower orders. I thought that _Choate_ was pronounced
> > > "Cho-ate," until I became a buddy of a Yalie who was a Choate grad
> while
> > I
> > > was serving in the Army Security Agency. Even when the preppy style of
> > > dress became popular among the plebs, it was known as "Ivy League" and
> > not
> > > as "preppy."
> > >
> > > On Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 5:03 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > 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
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Wilson
> > > -----
> > > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> > > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > > -Mark Twain
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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
> >
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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