"kid" vs. "child"

[George Thompson]

There was a catchphrase from the early 20th C: "I love my wife, but O!, you kid", to be addressed to a pretty girl.  I can't document it right now, though.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2002 6:15 pm
Subject: Re: "kid" vs. "child"

> 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
> wouldtalk 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 [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
>