etymology of "wannabe"

[Scott F Kiesling]

There was a discussion on linguist list a few years ago. Try
http://linguistlist.org/issues/3/3-971.html.
This is the last posting in this discussion, so you might look at the
archives for earlier months as well. I believe one of them cites the
Oxford Dict. of New Words.
Scott

On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, Benjamin Bailey wrote:

>
> Does anyone know anything about the etymology of "wannabe". Smitherman
> (1994) includes it in her lexicon of AAVE. It is certainly used by many
> African Americans to mean, as she writes, "a person trying to act as if
> he/she is a member of any group or has achieved a particular status than
> he/she does not have".
>
> Does anyone know of origins or uses by groups other than African Americans?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Benjamin Bailey, PhD
> Center for the Study of Human Development
> Box 1938, Brown University
> Providence, RI  02912
>
> e-mail: Benjamin_Bailey at brown.edu
> telephone: (401) 273-6047
>
>
>