rents - parents

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Note that OED has this to 1968, at RENT n.(3).

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 10:16:51PM -0400, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> 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
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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