Date:  Tue, 23 Dec 1997 11:33:34 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: "wig out"

At 11:08 AM 12/23/97 EST, you wrote:
>I always thought it was a playful variation of 'to flip your wig'- going
>back to the 80s for me.
>
>Dale Coye
>The College of NJ
>

I think Sheidlower had it -- "to flip one's wig" is from the 30's or so, and
was later put through the beatnik lens of "to [verb] out" in the 50's, which
then passed into the larger speech-community. If "flip one's wig" originated
in the early 30's or so, one wonders whether it was generated by the visual
imagery of motion-picture cartoons, which in their "sound" versions were
coming into their own in the early 30's -- or, on the other hand, did the
phrase grow from the idea of visually portraying a cartoon character's
surprise or excitement (etc.) by having its hair (etc.) flip into the air
and then fall back onto the head. A chicken and egg question, perhaps.

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