"kid" vs. "child"

[Peter A. McGraw]

Nevertheless I think I've noticed a usage shift during my lifetime.  Sure I
heard the usual lame jokes, when I was a kid, about how "kids" were really
baby goats.  But I don't remember hearing "kid"='child' used in the
singular until my son was of "kid" age--except in direct address and in
fairly specific contexts.  "Hey, kid!" was usually used by an older (or at
least bigger) boy to challenge or menace a younger one.  A little later on
I remember a fad among girls to use it in direct address to each other (but
never to boys) in a different context--e.g., "Oh, kid, you should have seen
what I saw the other day..."

But I don't recall a straight singular "kid," and when my parents would
talk about their childhood my mother would say, "When I was a child..." and
my dad would say, "When I was a boy..."--never, "When I was a kid."  Yet
both of them addressed my sister and me as "you kids" all the time.

When my son came home from nursery school one day and explained that "each
kid gets one cookie," it struck me as an innovation.

Am I making this all up, or do others have similar recollections?

Peter Mc.


--On Thursday, November 21, 2002 5:26 PM -0500 "Baker, John"
<JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:

>         The OED, which traces the usage back to at least 1690, says that
> by the 19th century it was frequent in familiar speech.
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathy Schlieper [mailto:ktaylorschlieper at YAHOO.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 4:41 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "kid" vs. "child"
>
>
> Does anyone know when the word "kid" started being
> used often...instead of "child"?
>
> In the 60's and 70's my father used to complain about
> me using it and always would say a kid was a "baby
> goat" and not a child!
>
> Kathy



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu