[Ads-l] mask up

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Phrase "mask up" might be very old – possible supplementary search
terms: fire fighter, surgeon, nurse, bandit, desperado.

Here is an instance circa 1996.

Date: 1996 (Publication year visible in snippet)
Year: All Night, All Day, Angels Watching Over Me - Page 152
Author: Evelyn Bence
Quote Page 152
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Database: Google Books snippet; data may be inaccurate and should be
verified with scans or hardcopy

[Begin extracted text]
Black, rolling smoke vented from the hole. I ordered my crew to mask up.

We were beginning to pull hose off the pumper when the chief ran over
to me. "Get upstairs quick , Lieutenant!" he said. "Use the back way.
There's been screaming reported coming from up there."
[End extracted text]

On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 8:12 AM James Landau
<00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> This coinage was inevitable, but I first saw it yesterday on a sign on I-76 outside Camden, New Jersey:
> GOING OUT?MASK UPDRIVING?BUCKLE UP
> Please someone antedate "mask up", or OED will have to tag its citation with "Electronic sign on I-76".
> Another sign on I-76 was "KEEP SOCIAL AND VEHICLE DISTANCING"
>
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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