BEAT and SQUARE



The dating error cited by Fred Shapiro is in Hendrickson's original; it

was my error for not pointing out Hendrickson's error. Hendrickson makes

lots of errors and doesn't do original research--I probably shouldn't have

quoted him at all.

I finally found Tom Dalzell's FLAPPERS 2 RAPPERS in my apartment.

"Beat" is on the cover and is well-chronicled on pages 94-96.

"Square" is described by Dalzell on pages 100-103. On page 102, he

writes that "_Square_ was a key word in the Beat movement, which drew the

lines between us and them to a far starker degree than past youth subcultures

had." The earliest citation is Cab Calloway's 1938 HEPSTER'S DICTIONARY; a

square is an unhip person.

Still, where's square? Did it originally refer to Washington Square or

Times Square? If the term originated in Harlem, "square" for "Times Square"

(that unhip downtown spot) would make some sense.

In the "tudor-tourist words" I copied a week ago from the New York

Post's travel section, "square meal" was one of the British terms. This may

be disputed--THE BARNHART DICTIONARY OF ETYMOLOGY has "The meaning of full,

solid, substantial (said of meals) is first found about 1850, in American

English." The traditional tour guide etymology caveats apply.



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