[Ads-l] romcom (1963)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The term "rom-com" appeared a day earlier in a listing for the same
"Luck of the Irish" movie:

The Circleville Herald (Circleville, Ohio)
08 Aug 1958, Page 9
https://www.newspapers.com/image/82884975/?terms=Irish
"Luck of the Irish" -- rom-com

Here is "com-rom" a week earlier. Look above the "Gog" movie listing:

The Circleville Herald (Circleville, Ohio)
01 Aug 1958, Page 9
https://www.newspapers.com/image/82884842/?terms=Gog
Movie "Always Together" -- com-rom

In 1958 The Circleville Herald editors had not decided on a consistent
punctuation style. The following abbreviations appeared in the Aug 9 TV
listings. The first example has two periods:

mus.-com.;
com-dra;
dra.
rom-com;
com-rom.
dra.
com-rom.
adv.
com;
west-dra.


On Tue, Jan 8, 2019 at 5:01 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Similar Rom-com and Com-rom in TV listings five years earlier.  Several examples in the same paper in 1958 and 1959.
>
> The Circleville Herald (Circlevill, Ohio), August 9, 1958, page 9.
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27001080/the_circleville_herald/
>
> Saturday. 1:00. (6) Movie - "Luck of the Irish" - rom-com.
>
>
> On Sunday of the following week you had your choice of a rom-com on channel 6 or a com-rom on channel 10 at the same time.
>
> The Circleville Herald (Circlevill, Ohio), August 15, 1958, page 9.
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27001120/the_circleville_herald/
>
> Sunday. 1:00 (6) Movie - Happiness ahead - rom-com; (10) Movie - "The cowboy and the Blonde" - com-rom.
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "Ben Zimmer" <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
> To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
> Sent: 1/7/2019 11:03:22 AM
> Subject: romcom (1963)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: romcom (1963)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
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