[Ads-l] romcom (1963)

[Margaret Winters]

And, in their own way, romantic?


----------------------------
MARGARET E WINTERS
Former Provost
Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 9:01 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: romcom (1963)

Aren't all self-help books mysteries?

On Tue, Jan 8, 2019, 4:53 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu wrote:

> Is it time for some new genres, say, a mystery self-help book?
> SG
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Laurence Horn <...>
> Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 3:07 PM
> To: ...
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] romcom (1963)
>
> And romcom presumably outlasted the others both for phonological reasons
> (the rhyme) and semantic ones (it actually denotes a well-defined category
> rather than a mashup like “myscom”.
>
> LH
>
> > On Jan 7, 2019, at 2:03 PM, Ben Zimmer <> wrote:
> >
> > OED3 (2005 draft entry) has 1971 as the earliest cite for "romcom" =
> > "romantic comedy." Merriam-Webster gives the same year. Here it is from
> > 1963:
> >
> > Vancouver Sun, Feb. 8, 1963, p. 63, col. 3
> > Ch. 2, 11:33 - The Bridal Path (rom-com, 1959).
> >
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.newspapers.com_clip_26956167_romcom_&d=DwIFaQ&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=DhBkL3xGSsW5D3xXWHVvak8Qtip54jvPbcGDiIgyVko&s=FJDxYBEYSpLLQ4_ishZJcetWfX6k4CyG9EZj3I_NNxE&e=
rom-com - Newspapers.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.newspapers.com_clip_26956167_romcom_&d=DwIFaQ&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=DhBkL3xGSsW5D3xXWHVvak8Qtip54jvPbcGDiIgyVko&s=FJDxYBEYSpLLQ4_ishZJcetWfX6k4CyG9EZj3I_NNxE&e=>
urldefense.proofpoint.com
Clipping found in The Vancouver Sun in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Feb 8, 1963. rom-com


> >
> > This is from TV listings for movies -- true of most of the early cites,
> > including the OED's 1971 example. The Vancouver Sun listing uses standard
> > abbreviations for genres: "dra" for "drama," "mys" for "mystery," "mus"
> for
> > "musical," "adv" for "adventure," "wes" for "western," etc. There are a
> > number of other hybrids on the same page, such as "mus-dra," "mys-com,"
> and
> > "rom-dra." Another movie, "Let's Live a Little" with Hedy Lamarr, is
> listed
> > as "com-rom," which I guess means it's more comedy than romance.
> >
> > -------------<
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIFaQ&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=DhBkL3xGSsW5D3xXWHVvak8Qtip54jvPbcGDiIgyVko&s=ZYucCgCFoSMrjHZEtroVuLbuQ_XEmZGL0cFeqcSrt0A&e=
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org