etymology of "wannabe"

[Marcyliena Morgan]

Though it was in use before, Spike Lee popularized the term
in his 1988 musical School Daze - which includes a musical
number featuring the term.


On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 08:42:04 -0500 Benjamin Bailey
<Benjamin_Bailey at Brown.edu> 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
>
>

----------------------------------------
Marcyliena Morgan
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