cougar (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

For what it's worth, I have a real example from western Canada in
1999, and multiple reliable attestations that it was in use in
Edmonton and Calgary in the early 1990s.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

On Sep 23, 2009, at 6:52 PM, "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
 > wrote:

> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
>>
>> http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/
>>
>> Also from '07, see Grant Barrett's discussion in his (Malaysian)
> _Star_
>> column
>> (which dates the term to '01):
>>
>
> Grant says:
>
> "In hunting cougars - the term, not the women or the wild cats - I
> found
> a March 3, 2001, article in the Globe and Mail of Toronto which
> credits
> "cougar" to a Canadian website called Cougardate.com, which the story
> says was started in 1999. . . . So, 1999 is the earliest probable date
> we have for the term and it's fairly reliable."
>
> The article itself is somewhat ambiguous:
>
> "Five weeks ago, Elspeth Sage and Elizabeth Vander Zaag, two
> first-generation cougars from the West Coast, launched an Internet
> dating service at http://www.cougardate.com, for cougars and prey of
> all
> ages."
>
> Later it says:  "The site was originally created three years ago when,
> according to the Vancouver Sun, Sage's nephew called the pair a couple
> of stereotypical cougars."
>
> So, was it created 5 weeks or 3 years prior to Mar 3 2001?  There is a
> reference in google groups to "cougardate" in Feb 2001.
>
> At any rate, 2001 seems to be the date to beat.
>
> "Street talk" _Toronto Star, The_ (Ontario, Canada) - Tuesday, August
> 29, 2000 p. F03 (from Newsbank)
>
> "Cougar : an attractive, flirtatious older woman ."
>
> An Apr 16 2001 article in _Maclean's_ says "The term even came up on
> Sex
> and the City, when PR exec Samantha-played by B.C. native Kim
> Cattrall-referred to herself as a cougar."  Sex and the City started
> in
> 1998, so it may go back that far, but a search of online scripts has
> failed to confirm this.
>
>
> The other member of the cougar partnership is a cub.
>
> "LOVE FOR ALL AGES" _Pittsburgh Post-Gazette_ (PA) - Sunday, October
> 9,
> 2005  p. E-01
> Author: L.A. Johnson
>
> "So, is Demi no longer an Urban Cougar since she's married her cub and
> embraced commitment?"
>
> "On the prowl with cougars" _Sunday Times, The_ (London, England) -
> Sunday, February 25, 2007 p. Travel 30
> Author: Sally Emerson
>
> "First, check the website www.urbancougar.com: there's a listing of
> bars
> and hangouts, as well as tales from the cougars and the "cubs" (their
> willing victims)."
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
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