"boy friend/ boyfriend" [WAS a new kind of "guy"]

[Jonathan Lighter]

1961 in Erving Goffman _The Goffman Reader_ [Cambridge: Blackwell, 1997] 38:Adults who choose to ride a merry-go-round display adult techniques of role distance....A young lady riding sidesaddle tinkles out, "It's cold," and calls to her watching boy friend's boy friend, "Come on, don't be chicken."

  ca1949? {Thanks Google Books!] in _Jewish Social Studies_ 347: At the ages of 17 and 18 26 out of 72 boys (36 per cent) prefer a girl-friend to a boy-friend.

  a1932 in Norman Thomas _What's the Matter with N.Y._ (N.Y.: Macmillan, 1932) 171: [Telegran text] John made mistake as his boy friend did not want negotiations with Philadelphia banker but says go ahead with Brooklyn party Chairman Board.

  1911 Winston Stokes, Charles Lamb & Mary Lamb_All Shakespeare's Tales_ (N.Y.: Stokes) 302: Troilus and Cressida... Achilles lay idly in his tent, listening to his boy friend Patroclus. [Not what you think, you filthy rotter!]

  1857 Edward Bulwer Lytton, in_Blackwood's Edinburgh Mag._ (June) 659: Vance looked with keen scrutiny into the face of his boy-friend.

  JL






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