[Ads-l] Antedating of "To Break Bad" (African-American Usage)

[Shapiro, Fred]

to break bad (OED, P.2.b., 1965)

1963 Afro-American (Baltimore) 7 Dec. 9 (ProQuest)

When I looked at television and saw the shooting [of Lee Harvey Oswald ... I said to myslef, this is worse than a Wild West movie.  They certainly "break bad" down in Texas.

Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org