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WHIPLASH!
The earliest known appearance of the phrase is from The Boston Journal. In an article titled "Current Notes" in the February 10, 1885 morning edition, the phrase is mentioned as a good practice sentence for writing students: "A favorite copy set by writing teachers for their pupils is the following, because it contains every letter of the alphabet: 'A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.'"[1] Dozens of other newspapers published the phrase over the next few months, all using the version of the sentence starting with "A" rather than "The".[2] The earliest known use of the phrase in its modern form (starting with "The") is from the 1888 book Illustrative Shorthand by Linda Bronson.[3] The modern form (starting with "The") became more common despite the fact that it is slightly longer than the original (starting with "A").
