[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Doo-Wop"

[Emily Gordon]

Tangentially related, given the slur against Italian immigrants and then
Italian-Americans generally, I have often wondered how it felt for
Italian-American singers to be in the doo-wop music business and to
pronounce the word "wop" so often. For example, Dion DiMucci, Angelo
D'Aleo, Carlo Mastrangelo, and Fred Milano of the Bronx on "I Wonder Why":
"Wop wop / wop wop wop wop wop."

Since I brought it up, I found the history of the slur interesting. Just
from the Wikipedia entry, after a summary of the relatively harmless usage
among Italians back in Italy:

One false etymology <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_etymology> or
backronym <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym> of wop is that it is an
acronym <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym> for "without passport" or
"without papers", implying that Italian immigrants entered the U.S. as
undocumented
or illegal immigrants <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrants>.[9]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-IngTrifEtymonline-9>[10]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-specious-10>[11]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-11> The term has nothing to do
with immigration documents, as these were not required by U.S. immigration
officers until 1924,[12] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-12> after
the slur had already come into use in the United States.[10]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-specious-10>

Another backronym is that wop stands for "working on pavement", based on a
stereotype that Italian immigrants and Italian-American
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian-American> men typically do manual
labor such as road-building.[13]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-rappoport-13>[14]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-milian-14> Turning acronyms
into words did not become common practice until after World War II,
accelerating along with the growth of the US space-program and the Cold
War. The first use of wop significantly predates that period.[9]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop#cite_note-IngTrifEtymonline-9>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wop

(And apologies if I should avoid hyperlinks on the listserv.)

On Wed, Jan 22, 2025 at 3:44 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> Thanks for pointing this out, Ben.
>
> Wikipedia claims that "doo wop" appeared in the Chicago Defender in 1961,
> but I cannot find such an occurrence when I search the Defender in ProQuest.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben
> Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2025 12:02 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Further Antedating of "Doo-Wop"
>
> I shared this cite here back in 2010.
>
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flistserv.linguistlist.org%2Fpipermail%2Fads-l%2F2010-February%2F097101.html&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C1d5d54b548fa4ebe157008dd3aa21338%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638731190005795586%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=vhyZXh8ymKTO%2FXoL7hfmnaX0PtDZGCAhT8jv9YlO15c%3D&reserved=0
> <
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-February/097101.html
> >
>
> On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 9:43 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > doo-wop (OED 1969)
> >
> > 1965 Chicago Defender 13 Nov. 26A (ProQuest)
> >
> > People who hate rock and roll, rhythm and blues, the Beatles, and doo-wop
> > singing groups, go wild about Ray Charles.
> >
> >
>
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