BAREBACK, a most useful word

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Tue, Jan 24, 2006 at 05:30:12PM -0800, Dave Wilton wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> > Of RonButters at AOL.COM
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 3:42 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: BAREBACK, a most useful word
> >
> >
> > perhaps ADS should consider BAREBACK as most useful new word of 2006, now
> > that it has crossed over into the straight world.
> >
>
> The earliest citations of "bareback" in reference to sex that I can find
> (1990) on Usenet are in a heterosexual context. This hardly conclusive and
> gay usage may indeed be older, but the term has been in use in heterosexual
> circles for a long time.

As HDAS observes, this (in adverbial use) is found in Wentworth and
Flexner in 1960, and Partridge's '61 edition, and in many other places
in heterosexual contexts. Presumably gay use of the term would have
to postdate the early '80s.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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