[Ads-l] =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=98kink=E2=80=99_?=interdatings

[Daphne Preston-Kendal]

Following Jesse’s message pointing to the newly-updated OED entries around ‘gimp’ etc.* I noticed that a number of entries in this semantic field have been revised, including ‘kink’ and ‘kinky’. These were subject of an unsuccessful TV appeal back in the 2000s, but research into popular literature of the First World War threw up much earlier quote for ‘kinky’ from 1916.
<https://languagesandthefirstworldwar.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/a-scoop/>
OED researchers also think they’ve managed to find ‘kink’ in 1902, although I think this quote has the same issue as the 1942 one which they rejected back in the day: because it’s a ‘kink in licentiousness’, it’s not clear whether it’s this specific sense or just an application of the earlier, more general ‘A trait or characteristic in a person's mind, personality, or behaviour regarded as unconventional, eccentric, irrational, or not normal.’ Similar applies to the 1919 quotation, in fact.

In ‘kinky’ there is also a horizontal rule between the WW1 quotes and the 1950s quotes (augmented by another doubtful quotation from 1950), which I think means the OED team believes the uses to be discontinuous. I don’t think this is the case, though I can only provide evidence for ‘kink’ (not ‘kinky’) with the material I have.

Definite interdatings for ‘kink’ are plentiful in this journal article:
<https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/fashioning-fetishism-from-the-pages-of-london-life/282EE6C3218AB1A05E264A802AAE73A0>
(Lisa S. Zigel (2012), ‘Fashioning Fetishism from the Pages of London Life’ in the Journal of British Studies 51 (3): 664–684.)

I still think there are probably interdatings for ‘kinky’ in the same magazine, but I haven’t found any. The British Library has an archive on microfiche. I spent a day or two trying my luck a few years ago, but I had only a limited amount of time in London, and there’s an awful lot to look through.

(I found this probably in 2016 or 2017 but, since it was in a fairly new journal article, I assumed someone else would have made the OED team aware of it and didn’t submit it back then. Mea culpa …)




Daphne Preston-Kendal

*One problem with the new design: the search engine seems not always to put results in (what I would consider to be) a sensible order – since the first noun homonym, ‘Silk, worsted, or cotton twist with a cord or wire running through it’, is followed by verb entries in the search results, I assumed that was the only noun entry. I now know to look more carefully in future …

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