[Ads-l] Early Citation for "Geek"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The OED has an 1876 citation as its first use for the word "geek."  Their second citation is dated 1908.  Green's Dictionary of Slang has that 1908 citation as its first use, with that 1876 citation in square brackets (meaning that it is not strictly or certainly an example of the headword).

Here is an early citation I have found:

1907 Kalamazoo (Michigan) Gazette 11 Sept. 4 (GenealogyBank)  Ain't that Joe Gans, the sassy old geek, though?

Fred Shapiro

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