[Ads-l] Antedating "white shoe" (1933)

[Shapiro, Fred]

Great antedating, Dave.  I had researched this and came up with a 1941 citation from the Daily Princetonian (also a 1934 citation from the Columbia Daily Spectator that seemed to be more of a humorous fashion statement than a sociological reference).  Dave's 1933 citation is clearly a sociological reference.

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: Saturday, August 2, 2025 9:55 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Antedating "white shoe" (1933)


OED has 1947.

“Professor and Student Praise New Yale Plan.” Chicago Daily Tribune, 28 December 1933, 5/4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

“I can see,” he said, “that Pearson and Davenport colleges at Yale are going to become the fashionable colleges of the United States as Christchurch [sic] is the fashionable college at Oxford. The ‘white shoe boys of Park avenue’ already have taken up these two colleges and managed to impart an air of social distinction to their walls.[”]

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