[Ads-l] date night

[Margaret Winters]

What I find interesting isn't so much married couples (or other long-term couples) stay in or get away for a "date", but that a school would use the term as way of providing more or less baby-sitting for the kids.   It's the parents who have the date and therefore the date night, not the children, no?


Margaret


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MARGARET E WINTERS
On Leave
Office of the Provost
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2016 11:41 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: date night

If I'm not mistaken, my understanding is that sometimes date nights involve not going out to dance, dine, or see a show, but staying in and um...  (Crucial is that the kids are dropped off elsewhere--I believe grandparents are an option for that, not just school gyms, crack dens, et al.)

LH


> On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:11 AM, Baker, John <JBaker at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
>
> Resending due to reported send error:
>
> Possibly influenced by the 2010 movie, Date Night, starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey. The OED has the married couple sense from 1979.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
>> On Oct 16, 2016, at 1:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> 'A planned and scheduled evening when parents can leave their young
>> children off at a school gym or similar place and go out to dine, dance,
>> see a show, or the like.'
>>
>> A couple we know has been using this term for about a year.  (E.g.,
>> "There's a date night at the school later this month.") Today I heard it
>> used on TV in a way to suggest that everybody is familiar with it.
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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