[Ads-l] Antedating of "White Shoe" (Type of Collegiate Person)

[Shapiro, Fred]

white shoe (OED 1947)

1932 Carolina Buccaneer Apr. 8/2 (Internet Archive)

On the following pages are listed some of the fraternities on the Carolina campus ... Delta Psi.*  Tony's Place — the white shoe boys that wear flannels and brown coats the year round.  They spend most of their week-ends in Philadelphia and points north.

NOTE:  The connotations of this usage are somewhat paradoxical, as the passage goes on to refer to the members of the fraternity as a "small time crowd," which seems not to suggest the upper class.

Fred Shapiro

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