[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Woke"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Here's an even earlier use of "woke" meaning "well-informed, alert."  The context is similar to the three other early citations.  It occurs in a student newspaper of an historically black college, in a description of a New York City jazz show.

woke (OED, adj.2., 2., 1962)

1956 The Lincolnian (Lincoln University [Pennsylvania] student newspaper) 17 Nov. 3/2 (Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection)  At the close of the night, we both agreed that we had had a fab time, and I promised Gerri that the next time I would pick up all the tabs. She replied, "I am woke." I wonder what she meant by that???????

Fred Shapiro


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2023 7:42 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Another Antedating of "Woke"

Mad Magazine had a second use of "woke" to mean "well-informed, alert," two years after the first:

1960 Mad Magazine June 45 (Internet Archive)
"I am woke, Dad," I broke, oozing, "some cat's at the window, cruising.

This too occurs in a Mad hepcat version of a literary classic (Poe's "The Raven").

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2023 8:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Antedating of "Woke"

Here's a nice antedating, clearly the same idiom as the 1962 New York Times Magazine citation that has been spotlighted by the OED and others as the earliest known appearance of "woke" meaning "well-informed, alert."  The context is a Mad Magazine hepcat version of a scene from Romeo and Juliet.  Undoubtedly the term must have been current slang before May 1958.

woke (OED, adj.2., 2., 1962)

1958 Mad Magazine May 17 (Internet Archive)

My lobes have not yet dug a hundred notes
Of your jive, but, like, I'm woke to your sound.

Fred Shapiro
Editor
NEW YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)


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