Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 10:10:07 -0500

From: Gregory {Greg} Downing downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU

Subject: Re: "wig out"



At 07:06 AM 12/23/97 -0800, you wrote:

Tom Dalzell's book, Flapper 2 Rappers, says it was both mainstream and hippie

slang of the 60s. At least on the West Coast, the term (meaning "to go

crazy") is still current and was reported at UCLA and CPP this year.



Judi Sanders





First place I heard it was from urban NYCity working-class 20-year-olds that

I was teaching at a branch of CUNY as a grad student in the later 1980's.

The sense from context was to flip out or go crazy or get upset. Cf. the

older "flip one's wig," which (without research) I always took it to be a

variant of.



Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu