rents - parents

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS files has the same quote.

My students were commonly reporting "rents" by 1975.

JL

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 10:41 PM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: rents - parents
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
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