[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Woke"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Here's an excellent "history of wokeness" that includes the 1943 usage and other precursors.

https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy

Fred Shapiro


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of dave at wilton.net <dave at WILTON.NET>
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2023 11:21 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Further Antedating of "Woke"


Here's a use of "woke up" from 1943:

“Deep Changes in Thinking Bringing Dread to White South—Redding.” Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Virginia), 13 March 1943, A9. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

"These lessons mean that the Negro is coming to have 'a faith in organized labor as a force for social justice. They mean what a United Mine Workers official in West Virginia told me in 1940: Let me tell you buddy, Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer,' he said."

[I think a couple of internal quotation marks have been omitted, but this transcript is what was printed.]

See also [ https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wordorigins.org%2Fbig-list-entries%2Fwoke&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C67fd87907b344ed8b4ac08daf7ddd490%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638094829384648851%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MnCpkFZzbN6CpnKpS6DR8DeBpnHqKRmnpOSjSwkzRRo%3D&reserved=0 ]( https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wordorigins.org%2Fbig-list-entries%2Fwoke&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C67fd87907b344ed8b4ac08daf7ddd490%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638094829384648851%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MnCpkFZzbN6CpnKpS6DR8DeBpnHqKRmnpOSjSwkzRRo%3D&reserved=0 )


-----Original Message-----
From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2023 8:29am
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Further Antedating of "Woke"



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


________________________________
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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