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Wobbly†
see 1923 quote
Labor Slang
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
n.
a member of the International Workers of the World (I.W.W.).
Quotations
1923
The origin of wobbly is thus given by Mortimer Downing, a member of the I.W.W. in its heyday: In Vancouver, in 1911, we had a number of Chinese members, and one restaurant keeper would trust any member for meals, He could not pronounce the letter w, but called it wobble, and would ask: "You I. Wobble Wobble ?" and when the card was shown credit was unlimited. Thereafter the laughing term among us was I. Wobbly Wobbly.
1963
Grogan could find no sympathetic ear to listen to the Old Wobbly Theory, indeed it seemed that he himself was dead.