antedating wife swapping (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Wife swapping" (of the adulterous kind) was a fully lexicalized core
concept by the mid '60s.

Now it seems so quaint, so sexist, so archaic, so uninspired.

(BTW, the 1886 ex. may refer to non-adulterous, sequential swapping.)

JL

On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 5:57 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      antedating wife swapping (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> OED has 1959 for "Wife Swapping" (sub entry under "wife")
>
>
> _Janesville [WI] Gazette_ 4 Dec 1869 p 1 col 5
> "Two couples were arraigned and found guilty in the Lawrence, Mass.,
> court last week, for husband and wife swapping."
>
>
> Statesville NC _Landmark_ 2 Apr 1886 col 6
> "In the South statistics show that not more than one divorce occurs in
> 100 marriages and that wife swapping is almost unknown."
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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