rents - parents

[Garson O'Toole]

Ronald Butters qrote:
> I would have to check to make sure, but I think this is listed ioin
> Richard Seymour's 1966 study of Duke University student slang.

Apparently psychology researchers were using the slang term "rents"
for parents circa 1968. Maybe the cite would indicate if the original
questionnaire was constructed in 1966 or earlier. By default clipping
is the assumed generation mechanism.

Year: 1968 (unverified; 1968 probe shows a header with 1968)
Title: Educational and psychological measurement, Volume 28, Issues 3-4
Authors: American College Personnel Association, Science Research Associates
Publisher: Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1968

http://books.google.com/books?id=rIMKAAAAIAAJ&q=rents#search_anchor

<Begin extracted excerpt>
Item was changed from: "Have you ever been cheeky to your rents?" to
read: "Have you ever been insolent to your parents?" Procedure. The E
gave the following instructions prior to ministering the inventory to
the two Experimental groups
<End excerpt>


The reference "American Slang" dates the term to "1960s+". Details for
the citation are not given.

Title: American Slang
Editors: Barbara Ann Kipfer, Robert L. Chapman
Edition: 4, abridged
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2008

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ow7JpC1NcesC&q=salvation#v=snippet&

<Begin excerpt>
rents or 'rents n Parents; PARENTAL UNIT(S) : I'm sure your only
salvation is to hit up your rents (1960s+ Teenagers)
<End excerpt>


> On Sep 28, 2011, at 7:48 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> You're just not hip, Joel. " 'rental units" and " 'rents" are common
>> contractions referring to the 1990s+ PArents. Actually, it's not even
>> 1990s--I believe, there is a mention of "dinner with the 'rents" in =
> Repo
>> Man, which is VERY 1980s.
>>=20
>> VS-)
>>=20
>> On 9/28/2011 7:10 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>> At 9/28/2011 04:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>=20
>>>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>>> Colonial parents
>>>> Did the ordinary colonial 'rental unit enjoy the kind of privacy =
> that
>>>> would have permitted them to keep sexual intercourse a secret till =
> the
>>>> chidren were approaching puberty?
>>> I don't think there were many "rental units".  And my feeling is that
>>> in most homes in the 18th century the children had a separate bedroom
>>> from the parents (at least in the American colonies).  What might
>>> have been heard I can't speak to.  And most families had farm animals
>>> (even in the "cities" a home might have a cow), so observation of
>>> animal copulation perhaps was the common medium of transmission of =
> knowledge.
>>>=20
>>> Joel
>>=20
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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