"daughter-not-in-law"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:55 PM +0000 1/5/05, neil wrote:
>on 5/1/05 4:52 pm, Thomas Paikeday at thomaspaikeday at SPRINT.CA wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Thomas Paikeday <thomaspaikeday at SPRINT.CA>
>>  Subject:      "daughter-not-in-law"
>>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--> -
>>
>>  Is the above word current enough to be used in print without =
>>  explanation? I saw it on the "Facts & Arguments" page in this morning's =
>>  Globe & Mail ("Canada's national newspaper"). I e-mailed Michael =
>>  Kesterton who edits the page and he cops out saying it is a joke.
>>
>>  I naturally Googled it first and there is one occurrence where it is =
>>  used and explained within brackets as "son's girl friend."
>>
>>  A very useful word, I think.
>>
>>  TOM PAIKEDAY
>>  www.paikeday.net
>
>Shouldn't that be 'daughter in law - not!'
>Neil Crawford
>neil at typog.co.uk

For ages, I've heard the term "out-law", which does strike me as more
elegant than "not-in-law", but almost always applied collectively
("my out-laws").

Also, I'd think either an out-law or a not-in-law would be more than
a boy/girlfriend simpliciter, entailing living-with or a longterm,
stable, committed (whatever) relationship.

L