[Ads-l] Still Further Antedating of "Geeky"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I don't think I can do any better than Garson's 1921 citation for "geeky."

When I conceived of employing large searchable historical text collections for historical-lexicographical research (in 1978 — my first antedating of the Oxford English Dictionary was using the Lexis database of judicial opinions to improve upon the dating of the word "mootness"), I could not have imagined that antedating words could be done as powerfully and systematically as is now possible.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2026 1:43 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Still Further Antedating of "Geeky"

We continue to travel back through time in the mesmerizing world of slang.

Date: March 7, 1921
Newspaper: College Life
Newspaper Location: Emporia, Kansas
Article: Thus Ye Shall Know Them
Quote Page 2, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fcollege-life-geeky%2F202816828%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C9dc812ae6365449f1da908deef2b514e%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C639211166484670835%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ar4eA90CC%2FUa4oLjlWxsRKxGFI00csjB0IIf0yeaKYM%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/college-life-geeky/202816828/>

[Begin excerpt]
The Freshmen act like the geeky small town sports who wander to the
city and imagine that all the city fellows have to do is to lay traps
to fleece them and laud over them.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Jul 31, 2026 at 7:24 AM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> geeky (OED 1981)
>
> 1944 Oakland Tribune 10 Feb. Editorial Page/3 (Newspapers.com)
>
> A geeky, small time hoodlum, an unpretentious gink ... Was sweating in the pokey, was beefing in the clink.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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