[Ads-l] romcom (1963)

[Laurence Horn]

And romcom presumably outlasted the others both for phonological reasons (the rhyme) and semantic ones (it actually denotes a well-defined category rather than a mashup like “myscom”.

LH

> On Jan 7, 2019, at 2:03 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> OED3 (2005 draft entry) has 1971 as the earliest cite for "romcom" =
> "romantic comedy." Merriam-Webster gives the same year. Here it is from
> 1963:
> 
> Vancouver Sun, Feb. 8, 1963, p. 63, col. 3
> Ch. 2, 11:33 - The Bridal Path (rom-com, 1959).
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26956167/romcom/
> 
> This is from TV listings for movies -- true of most of the early cites,
> including the OED's 1971 example. The Vancouver Sun listing uses standard
> abbreviations for genres: "dra" for "drama," "mys" for "mystery," "mus" for
> "musical," "adv" for "adventure," "wes" for "western," etc. There are a
> number of other hybrids on the same page, such as "mus-dra," "mys-com," and
> "rom-dra." Another movie, "Let's Live a Little" with Hedy Lamarr, is listed
> as "com-rom," which I guess means it's more comedy than romance.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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