[Ads-l] proleptic "toast"

[Ben Zimmer]

For my Wall Street Journal column, I'm doing some research on "toast"
defined thusly by OED3 (Mar. 2003 draft addition):

---
  colloquial (originally U.S.). A person or thing that is defunct, dead,
finished, in serious trouble, etc. Frequently in proleptic use, esp. in
_you're_ (also _I'm_, _we're_, etc.) _toast_: you (I, we, etc.) will soon
be dead, in trouble, etc. Cf. _history_ n.
The lines in quot. 1983   do not in fact appear in the U.S. film
_Ghostbusters_ as released in 1985 [sic -- it was 1984], since a
considerable amount of the dialogue is ad-libbed. The actual words spoken
by Venkman (played by Bill Murray) as he prepares to fire a laser-type
weapon, are, 'This chick is toast'; this is probably the origin of the
proleptic construction which has gained particular currency.
1983   D. Aykroyd & H. Ramis Ghostbusters (film script, third draft) 123
Venkman..: Okay. That's it! I'm gonna turn this guy into toast.
1985   Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald 5 May b2/2   Shake, Fedya..because
you're toast!
[etc.]
---

I'm looking for early non-"Ghostbusters" uses of "toast" in the proleptic
fashion. So far, the earliest I've found in print (not referring to the
movie dialogue) is this from Sept. '84:

---
https://archive.org/details/KSULKSColl198485V91N2345/page/n5/mode/1up
Kansas State Collegian, Sept. 27, 1984, p. 6 (advt.)
The Avalon. [...] Fri. Toga Toga Toga. Put on your toga and come party
Greek style. [...]
The emperor Party-us Maximus has decreed: "Every warrior shall show up in a
toga, or at the stroke of midnight Friday -- you're toast!"
---

Since "Ghostbusters" was released in June '84, that fits the timeline of
the movie introducing the usage into the mainstream. Here's the 1985
example cited in the OED entry:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-youre-toast/126774966/

"Toast" then shows up in Connie Eble's UNC slang lists in '86 (as noted by
GDoS), and it went into wider circulation after that. Can anyone track down
other early examples?

--bgz

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