[Ads-l] Kung Flu

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 4:30 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:
[snip]

>
> OED has exx. of "kung fu" from 1966, but few Americans had heard of "kung
> fu" (Chinese martial arts) before the premiere of the eponymous ABC-TV
> series on October 14, 1972.
>

I discuss English-language examples of "kung fu" going back to 1958 (Kein
H. Lee, "Fighting Arts of the Orient: Elemental Karate and Kung Fu") here:

https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/how-kung-fu-entered-the-popular-lexicon/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/take-notegrasshopperof-kung-fu-1389402083

But I agree it took the TV show to make it a commonly known term.

--bgz

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