A “workaholic” is someone who is addicted to work. “Workaholics Synonymous” was cited in print in 1947, when it was a pun on the group Alcoholics Anonymous.
Wayne Edward Oates (1917-1999) popularized ther term “workaholic” in 1968 and is frequently credited with its coinage.
[The 1947 “workaholic"citation was found by Fred Shapiro and published on the American Dialect Society listserv.]
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
work·a·hol·ic noun \ˌwər-kə-ˈhȯ-lik, -ˈhä-\
: a person who chooses to work a lot : a person who is always working, thinking about work, etc.
Origin of WORKAHOLIC
work + -aholic
First Known Use: 1968
5 April 1947, Toronto (Ontario) Daily Star, pg. 6:
If you are cursed with an unconquerable craving for work, call Workaholics Synonymous, and a reformed worker will aid you back to happy idleness.
13 June 1962, Thomasville Times-Enterprise, “Work: Is It A Curse?”, pg. 4, col. 1:
But how should a young man starting out in life guard against becoming a workaholic?
(...)
—Ormund Powers—Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.
OCLC WorldCat record
On being a “Workaholic”
Author: Wayne E Oates
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Pastoral Psychology, v19 n8 (196810): 16-20
OCLC WorldCat record
Confessions of a workaholic; the facts about work addiction.
Author: Wayne E Oates
Publisher: World Pub. Co. [©1970]
Edition/Format: Book : English
Twitter
The workaholic syndrome
Author: Judith K Sprankle; Henry Ebel
Publisher: New York : Walker, 1987.
Edition/Format: Book : English
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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