[Ads-l] "meetup"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 7:12 PM, James A. Landau wrote:
>
> A quickie search on Google Books was unable to find "meetup
> " as a noun with the meaning of "meeting" before 1992.
> And that was in a snippet view.
>
> William John Gies: His Contribution to the Advancement of ... - Page 235
> https://books.google.com/books?id=kBVqAAAAMAAJ

That looks to be bad OCR -- it's "meeting" on the page image.

"Meetup" was popularized by Meetup.com starting in 2002. (The domain
name Meetup.com went through some other incarnations, back to 1998.)
The word got a lot of attention in the leadup to the '04 presidential
election, when campaigns, esp. Howard Dean's, used meetups to mobilize
supporters.

Early media mentions:

---
https://web.archive.org/web/20020806152620/http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/technology/personal_technology/3662888.htm
SiliconValley.com, July 15, 2002
The site, called "Meetup" (www.meetup.com), has a simple goal: It
wants to help people with the same interests use the Internet to meet
in person. Got a burning desire to talk about the Burning Man
festival? A Meetup is scheduled for July 25. Fishing for new friends?
A Meetup on aquariums is set for Aug. 12. Want to find people who
share more than their feelings? A Meetup on file-sharing kicks off on
Aug. 5.
---
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/15/1026185154192.html
The Age, July 16, 2002
American entrepreneur Scott Heiferman, 30, saw the possibilities and
last year formed a team of seven to build the core of a website,
MEETUP.com, to narrow the gap between online and the real world...
Heiferman says he is surprised by the growth of MEETUP groups and how
quickly Australians and New Zealanders have taken to the service.
Until recently, Melbourne was one of the 10 most active cities and
there are active MEETUPs in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Sydney.
---

--bgz

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