[Ads-l] Antedating of "White Shoe"
Shapiro, Fred
fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Sat Feb 15 23:17:23 UTC 2025
white shoe (OED 1947)
1941 Daily Princetonian 25 Nov. 1 / 2
Show me a white shoe (five-button-coat, station-wagon, crew-cut, beer-jacket, etc., etc.) and I'll show you a Princeton man.
NOTE: This is an antedating of the OED's entry for "white shoe" referring to an upper-class male. There is a 1934 citation in the Columbia Spectator, 25 Apr. 2/2 ["The following is the procedure to be followed in stomping out the white shoe aristocracy"], but that may be a humorous fashion statement rather than a sociological reference.
Fred Shapiro
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list