Article: Digby Baltzell.(professor and author)(Obituary)

THE acronym WASP, standing for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, was probably invented by Digby Baltzell. He disclaimed its authorship, but dictionaries insist on dating it from 1964, when a book by Mr Baltzell, "The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America", was first published. His disclaimer may have been due less to modesty than irritation. Here was a distinguished academic, a fellow of Harvard and Princeton and goodness knows where else, but famous for his association with a single word. "You must meet the WASP man," a well-meaning hostess would say at a party.

The lifting of the word from a sociological tome and its liberation into popular use ...

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