Rent-boy

[Dave Wilton]

Thanks. I should have cross-checked "renter" in the OED2 before asking.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Fred Shapiro
> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 11:25 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Rent-boy
>
>
> 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
>