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