Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 11:21:47 -0400

From: "Edwin H. Rutkowski" ehrutko[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]BINGHAMTON.EDU

Subject: Re: my grades are punk



On Mon, 16 Sep 1996, Dale F.Coye wrote:



I just read my grandmother's diary from c.1920 when she was at Cornell. She

wrote "My grades are punk." I asked my mother and father who were at Cornell

in the early 40s about it and they told me they thought everyone knew it

meant "very bad grades." I never heard it. Does anyone know how widespread

it was and when it died out?



Dale Coye

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Princeton, NJ





Coming into my teens in the 1930s, I can testify to "I'm feeling punk

today" as in very, very wide currency, with the same meaning as in

Coye's inquiry. Webster's New World Dictionary (3rd College Edition) still

lists it as Slang Americanism.



Edwin H. Rutkowski

ehrutko[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]binghamton.edu