Barry Popik (born 1961) is an American etymologist. Popik is a consulting editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America^{[citation needed]} and was described in The Wall Street Journal as "the restless genius of American etymology".^[1]

Early life and education

Popik was born and raised in Rockland County, New York, in 1961, to Silvia Stahl and Sidney Popik.^{[citation needed]} He was educated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York, graduating with a B.S. in economics in 1982 and a B.S. in management^{[clarification needed]} in 1982.^{[citation needed]} He received a J.D. from Touro Law School in Huntington, New York, in 1985.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Popik is a freelance contributor-consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary of American Regional English, Historical Dictionary of American Slang and The Yale Book of Quotations.^{[citation needed]}

Popik contributed his independent research to the 2011 edition^[2] of Professor Gerald Cohen's original 1991 monograph^[3] on the etymology of "Big Apple" — that it was first popularized in the 1920s by sports writer John J. Fitz Gerald — which led to the New York City street corner where Fitz Gerald lived being renamed "Big Apple Corner" in 1997.^[4]

Political career

Popik was the Republican Party and Liberal Party of New York candidate for election as Manhattan Borough president in 2005.^{[citation needed]} He received more than 40,000 votes and finished second to Scott Stringer, who received more than 200,000 votes.^{[citation needed]} Popik was a law judge with the Parking Violations Bureau of the city's Department of Finance.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Popik met his wife Angie Garcia, a political strategist, while running for Manhattan Borough president in 2005. They married shortly afterward and moved to Austin, Texas, in September 2006, and had two children.^{[citation needed]} After seven years in Austin, the family moved back to New York.^{[citation needed]}

Publications

Author

• Cohen, Gerald Leonard; Barry A. Popik (1999). Studies in Slang: Part VI. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-4377-8. OCLC 62059348.
• Cohen, Gerald Leonard; Barry A. Popik (2006). Studies in Slang: Part VII. Archived from the original on 2011-08-26.

Contributor

• Smith, Andrew F. (2004). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517552-3. OCLC 53476629.
• Shapiro Fred R., ed. (2006-10-30). The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10798-2. OCLC 66527213.