An early usage of wank, antedating OED entry

The earliest recorded citation of wank in the "Oxford English Dictionary" is the remarkably late date of 1948. The source for the 1948 noun citation is another dictionary, Eric Partridge's "Dictionary of Forces' Slang": wank-pit, meaning a bed. Although Partridge provid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Notes and queries 2013-09, Vol.258 (3), p.376-379
Main Authors: Davies, Keri, Whitehead, Angus
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The earliest recorded citation of wank in the "Oxford English Dictionary" is the remarkably late date of 1948. The source for the 1948 noun citation is another dictionary, Eric Partridge's "Dictionary of Forces' Slang": wank-pit, meaning a bed. Although Partridge provides no substantive evidence for his assertion that the verb wank was in use since the late 19c, wank appears repeatedly in the early chapters of at least one early 20c text, an anonymously published work of Edwardian homoerotic fiction, "Memoirs of a Voluptuary".
ISSN:0029-3970
1471-6941