Rent-boy

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Dave Wilton wrote:

> Has anyone run across this or similar early uses of "rent-boy" before? Could
> the letter be genuine? None of the websites that cite the letter have
> anything resembling a traceable citation. I'm skeptical, but it doesn't seem
> to be beyond the realm of possibility.

The word Wilde actually used was "renter."  It is, in fact, the first use
in OED for that sense of "renter."

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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