Talk:administrativia

Coinage/Origin

(See this revision for here-discussed quotation.)

The term administrativia, as a regular Latinate plural – if a bit formal – could in principle have been coined by anyone, and possibly independently. The Billboard reference credits it to Harold E. Wigren, June 1965, in a statement before a Congressional subcommittee. While the coinage may be original with him, and this particular usage may have popularized it, all that I think can be reasonably concluded is that the term was popularized in educational circles in the US in the mid-to-late 1960s, perhaps specifically by the National Education Association (of which Wigren was an employee at the time) – there are several other references from the late 1960s, generally in educational contexts, often by the NEA.

As background on Wigren, in the quote, he is acting as spokesman and Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Copyright Law Revision, and his papers (including speeches) can be found at the University of Maryland – see Papers of Harold E. Wigren/Harold E. Wigren Papers.

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 05:13, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

If anyone is interested in primary oral sources, the specific citation in the above papers is:

Articles, Reports and Speeches by Harold E. Wigren -- Speeches -- Copyright Law, 1965-1978, series 4, box 9, folder 2

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 05:14, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

The term seems to have been preceded by administrivia (1930s) – which may have been formed originally as an abbreviation of the awkward (-str-…-t-) administrativia, so it seems that historically, administrativia arose as a regularization/formalization of the earlier administrivia.

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 05:26, 23 November 2010 (UTC)