Just wondering ("billfold" vs. "wallet")

[Wilson Gray]

I was going to say that "billfold" is still the term of choice in BE,
until I recalled that my vocabulary is about three-quarters of a
century old.

-Wilson

On 1/3/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Just wondering ("billfold" vs. "wallet")
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From time to time during the past decade or two, younger friends and kinsmen have derided me for using the word "billfold" for what they call a "wallet."
>
> I had never bothered to wonder whether my usage was deemed risable on account of its Southernness or rusticity or old-fashionedness.
>
> DARE defines "billfold" as "a pocketbook [sic!] to carry folded money; a wallet," noting that the word is "widespread, but least freq in NEast, Pacific." A very dotty map follows.
>
> May I plausibly suspect that "billfold" is coming to be considered archaic--used least freq by the young and hep?
>
> --Charlie
> _________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
>
> >Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 14:48:46 -0800
> >From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> >Subject: Re: Just wondering
>
> >
> >No he-man in NYC would ever admit to carrying a "purse" under any circumstances, regardless of definition.  You had a "billfold" or a "wallet." >
>
> >  JL
>
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