Hillary Clinton might be the wonkiest candidate for President ever. The latest proposal from her policy shop is a plan to keep U.S. companies from "offshoring" their profits to avoid taxes. It's pretty complicated, but if you really want to know, Peter Orszag
will explain it to you. Me, I'm just impressed by how many very detailed plans Hillary has already put forward.
I was utterly unfamiliar with this usage of "wonky", and thus very confused on my first reading.
ReplyDeleteBriefly examining the etymology, the "shakey" or "unreliable" meaning is apparently very old, dating back to Old English.
This other usage for "overly studious" or "hardworking" is very recent - some sources say 1920s, others 1950s - and very limited in spread, being almost exclusively American and chiefly of usage in academic settings.