[Ads-l] Antedating of "Humongous"

[James Eric Lawson]

A month earlier:

1964 _The Colonnade_ (Woman's College of Georgia) 17 April 5/5 (Internet
Archive) Sentiments, or "words of wisdom" can often be heard because of
trying things. Typical of this is when someone enters the "Big S.U." and
comes out with the "classic statement," "just ask me if I didn't just
fail that "humongus" test."

https://archive.org/details/1964317/page/n2/mode/1up?q=humongus

See also https://english.stackexchange.com/a/549119 answer from 15 Oct 2020.

On 10/8/22 13:17, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> Great find, Fred. It's always helpful to include a link -- here it is:
> 
> https://archive.org/details/1964529/page/n1/mode/1up?q=humongous
> 
> The previous earliest known cite from 1967 (as given in GDoS) was one that
> I shared here back in 2005.
> 
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-April/048988.html
> 
> --bgz
> 
> On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 3:22 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
>> humongous (OED 1970, Green 1967)
>>
>> 1964 _The Colonnade_ (Woman's College of Georgia) 29 May 3/1 (Internet
>> Archive)  Other students made wide detours to avoid the humiliation and
>> fear of being chased and attached by the humongous numbers of bees in front
>> of Atkinson.
>>
>> NOTE:  This citation is a little funky, in that it appears to be a parody
>> issue with the heading "The Colomnude."  However, internal evidence
>> indicates clearly that it was published in 1964 (for example, the issue has
>> an advertisement for a movie that came out in 1964).
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

-- 
James Eric Lawson

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