Looks like it might be even older than that, Paul. "Rat race" makes appearances in English as far back as the mid-1860s, but it has its first spike on popularity around 1902.
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=rat+race&year_start=1850&year_end=1920&corpus=0&smoothing=3 Chris --- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== On 2012-07-01, at 12:39 PM, Paul Brandon wrote: > > > > > > > The term appears to be somewhat older. > According to Wikipedia: > > "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat. — > commonly attributed to Lily Tomlin in People magazine (26 Dec 1977)[1], but > according to The Yale Book of Quotations (Shapiro & Epstein, p. 767), Rosalie > Maggio in The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women states that William > Sloane Coffin said "Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat" as > chaplain of Williams College or Yale University in the 1950s or 1960s. [2] " > > On Jul 1, 2012, at 9:55 AM, Louis E. Schmier wrote: > >> Michael, most people are wrong. The term originated with a cartoon strip >> called "Joe Rat." If I remember correctly, it was the work of a NC State >> student and appeared in the late '70s or early '80s in the school paper. >> Got to look it up. >> >> >> On Jul 1, 2012, at 10:46 AM, Michael Britt wrote: >> >>> Most people associate rats running in mazes with psychology, but aside from >>> Tolman I don't know any other psychologists who used rats in their work. >>> Skinner is mostly known or using pigeons (though I heard he might have used >>> rats at one point). Any others? >>> >>> Michael > > Paul Brandon > Emeritus Professor of Psychology > Minnesota State University, Mankato > [email protected] > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=18738 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-18738-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > > > > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18741 or send a blank email to leave-18741-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
