Henry Grabar, “Nabe or Hood? A Brief History of Shortening ‘Neighborhood’” (The Atlantic Cities, Aug. 27, 2012)
I also reached out to Boston Globe columnist Ben Zimmer, who dug up the earliest use he’s aware of: a 1922 Denver Post story that refers to a “nabe gym,” easily predating the word’s 1942 appearance in the American Thesaurus of Slang, the first example registered by the OED.
Read the rest here.