(fairly) new (but unlisted) "benefits"

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 5, 2011, at 10:37 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 8/5/2011 09:49 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> Browsing through the Google Books hits under
>> "friends with benefits" does get rid of most
>> (not all) of the references to the movie, but
>> I'm not sure how to arrange the hits
>> chronologically if it's possible to do so.  Most
>> seem to be from the last 5 years, which doesn't
>> help.  Alternatively there's Nexis, but they
>> keep changing the search algorithms and I haven't kept up.
>
> Successively telling GBooks Advanced Search to
> search before xxxx for "[best] friend[s] with
> benefits"


Aha!  Good to know.

I see from googling "friend(s) with benefits" + "Alanis Morissette" that her "Head over Feet" (1995) is variously described as coining, popularizing, or repopularizing the phrase. It was certainly at least a primary vector, although it's interesting that the expression, if not the concept, remained largely dormant—as Joel's data confirms--for another few years after that.

LH

> (quoted; all 4 combinations) arrives at
> just 9 hits before Dec 31, 2003, the earliest of
> which (that appears relevant) is alleged to be
> Apr 21, 1997, in New York Magazine, Vol. 30, No.
> 15, page 106, a personal ad (a believable source, surely):
>
> "Wanted: Best Friend With Benefits  I'm an
> outgoing, fun, family-oriented 33-year-old (hell
> of a catch), with a lot to offer.
> ...
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org