Tramp Stamp

[Baker, John]

        I wasn't aware of the use of "tramp stamp" to mean a hickey, as
documented on Double-Tongued.  I did find some examples from the early
1990s where "tramp stamp" meant food stamps.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:22 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Tramp Stamp

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 12:20 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 11:38 AM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com>
wrote:
>>
>>        How old is "tramp stamp," the current term for those popular
>> tattoos at the base of a woman's back?  The earliest I see is
>> 8/19/2004 from the San Francisco Chronicle (Westlaw):  In the Central

>> Valley, writes Lisa Hayes of Modesto, they call that tattoo at the
>> base of a woman's spine a "tramp stamp."
>>
>>        That seems rather late, though.
>
> Earliest Urban Dictionary definition is from 3/22/2003:
>
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tramp+Stamp&defid=67941

Nothing earlier on Double-Tongued:

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/tramp_stamp


--Ben Zimmer

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