Barry Popik
Barry Popik is an American etymologist. Popik is a consulting editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America and was described in The Wall Street Journal as "the restless genius of American etymology".
Early life and education
Popik was born and raised in Rockland County, New York, in 1961, to Silvia Stahl and Sidney Popik. 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 in 1982. He received a J.D. from Touro Law School in Huntington, New York, in 1985.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.Popik contributed his independent research to the 2011 edition of Professor Gerald Cohen's original 1991 monograph 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.