Word: wonk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Economics 1 has never been unknockable. Students always moan a little about the ultra-general final exam questions and the obscurities of Dorfman's price theory text. And all but the most even-tempered freshmen at times grow resentful of the inevitable calculus wonk who loudly corrects mistakes in his section man's graphs. These are minor irritants though. The vast majority of students (95 per cent according to a 1962 Economics Department survey) end up satisfied with Ec 1 and the course hardly seemed a target for radical discontent...
...constantly changing lingo brewed from psychological jargon, show-biz slang and post-Chatterley obscenity. What the 1920s admiringly called a "good-time Charlie" is today Freudianized as a "womb baby," one who cannot kick the infantile desire for instant gratification. Anyone who substitutes perspiration for inspiration is a "wonk"-derived from the British "wonky," meaning out of kilter. The quality an earlier generation labeled cool is "tough," "kicky," "bitchin'," or "groovy." But the most meaningful facet of In-Talk is its ambiguity, a reflection of youth's determination to avoid self-definition even in conversation. "Up tight...
...vision of Jonathan the physics-clerk, son of Henry the sales manager, that came unto him as he was at wonk, concerning the fearful destiny of the sons of John...
...Hilles Library slights some people, it is still an excellent "study center." Its very weakness for the wonk, its relaxed smoking-room atmosphere, is its greatest strength as the center of an intellectual community at Radcliffe quad. No modern building at Harvard succeeds as well in including the old pleasures of quiet, leisurely contemplation or discussion...
...Death to the wonk," their fervent cry. "This is our new crusade...