[Ads-l] romcom (1963)

[Stephen Goranson]

Is it time for some new genres, say, a mystery self-help book?
SG

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Laurence Horn <...>
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 3:07 PM
To: ...
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] romcom (1963)

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 <> 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://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.newspapers.com_clip_26956167_romcom_&d=DwIFaQ&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=DhBkL3xGSsW5D3xXWHVvak8Qtip54jvPbcGDiIgyVko&s=FJDxYBEYSpLLQ4_ishZJcetWfX6k4CyG9EZj3I_NNxE&e=
>
> 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.
>
> -------------<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIFaQ&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=DhBkL3xGSsW5D3xXWHVvak8Qtip54jvPbcGDiIgyVko&s=ZYucCgCFoSMrjHZEtroVuLbuQ_XEmZGL0cFeqcSrt0A&e=>

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