Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 10:16:54 -0500

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

Subject: Re: "wig out"



Treppenwitz:



I said: "Cf. the

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

variant of.





Is "flip one's wig" older than "wig out"? I haven't the ref-bks to check

here at the office, but I'd heard "flip one's wig" years before "wig out,"

and just assumed (wrongly?) that the latter was newer, especially since my

sense is that "[verb] out" was a common beatnik/hippie formula, which would

date such locutions to the 60s or 50s at the earliest (cop out, space out,

wig out, etc.).



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