The push for urgency in our day-to-day existence is often expressed as a “New York minute” because that’s how long it takes an impatient New Yorker to let you know you’re a problem.
It was discovered in 1967 as a response to a survey for a Dictionary of American English.
One question asked was to fill in the blank after, “I’ll be ready in … ” to which a Jasper, Texas, policeman wrote “a New York minute.”
