Date:  Mon, 4 Aug 1997 10:31:12 +0000
From:  "E.W. Gilman" <egilman[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WEBSTER.M-W.COM>
Subject: presentism

Well I get back from a couple of weeks off and I find some questions
about this word waiting for me. The 1923 date in C10 is wrong. It
was based on a one-word book title that caught the eye of an editor
of the 1934 edition because the word was not in our dictionaries.
The book was published by the Presentist Society, and hence is
doubtless about the religious belief. Fred Shapiro's 1950 citation
looks to be the earliest for the historical use.

E.W.Gilman