[Ads-l] Fw: "Key party" [1957]

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Many thanks, Garson.

On Wed, Jan 3, 2024 at 1:11 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

If you decide to include some background information with your article
> then the following may be helpful, Bonnie. The OED has two pertinent
> senses for wife-swapping:
>
> permanent wife-swapping with a citation in 1851
> temporary wife-swapping with a citation in 1953
>
> I have found citations for the related phrase "swapping wives"
> beginning in 1832.
>
> [Begin OED excerpt]
> wife-swapping NOUN
>
> 1. The permanent or long-term exchange of wives between married
> couples, esp. for the purpose of remarriage. Now rare.
>
> 1851 The Mayor, with some trouble, made Mr. Brown understand that such
> a business transaction, or wife-swapping, is not allowable.
> Weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee) 12 November
>
> 2. The practice of temporarily exchanging wives or sexual partners
> between couples for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. Cf.
> swinging n. 5.
>
> 1953 There was ‘wife-swapping’ with both husbands and wives knowing
> about the activity.
> Science News Letter 22 August 119/1
> [End OED excerpt]
>
> In the excerpt below "immortality" was probably supposed to be
> "immortality".
>
> Date: May 26, 1832
> Newspaper: Vermont Republican & Journal.
> Newspaper Location: Windsor, Vermont
> Article: The force of Precept
> Quote Page 4, Column 5
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The force of Precept.--The people of the West are tarring Mormonites
> for the grossest irreligion and immortality, and at the same time
> swapping wives from a love of novelty. After the lectures of Fanny
> Wright and the strictures of a sad trollop of the same school, little
> is to be expected but all those changes in the relations of society,
> which contribute to gratify passion and debase mankind.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Date: June 2, 1832
> Newspaper: Brattleboro' Messenger
> Newspaper Location: Brattleboro, Vermont
> Article: (Filler item)
> Quote Page 1, Column 6
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Swapping Wives.--An exchange of these articles by a regular bill of
> transfer was lately made at Pottsville, Penn. to the entire
> satisfaction of all parties.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Jan 1, 2024 at 8:01 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > @Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> >
> > > I think I'd like to put together a blog
> > > post on all these sightings from the '50s, with prior permission of
> > > contributors here, of course.
> >
> >
> > Fine by me . . . .
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com>
> > Sent: Monday, January 1, 2024 4:57 PM
> > To: American Dialect Society <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>; OEDUK <
> OED.UK at oup.com>
> > Subject: "Key party" [1957]
> >
> > [1954 Washington Post and Times Herald Nov 3/1
> >
> > Early in the investigation of the Clark murder, circumstances leading up
> to the killing reportedly included wild "wife-swapping" parties among the
> Clarks and their friends.  These reports were vehemently denied by
> prosecution and defense officials. They denied there was any evidence of
> such parties, in which husbands were supposed to have tossed their house
> keys onto the floor while the women scrambled for them, and took as her
> husband-for-the night the man whose keys she recovered.]
> >
> >
> https://archive.org/details/per_washington-post_1954-11-30_360/page/3/mode/1up?q=%22wife+swapping%22+keys
> >
> >
> >
> > 1956 Rage Dec v1n1 10/2
> >
> > 'Key' parties, wife-swapping—and now the latest thrill of jaded pleasure
> seekers . . . I Played Suburbia's Newest Sex Game
> >
> >
> https://archive.org/details/rage-v-01n-01-1956-12.-arnold-elvis-ia/page/10/mode/1up?q=%22key+parties%22
> >
> >
> >
> > keysies
> >
> > 1956 U.S. Coast Guard Magazine Mar. 28/3
> >
> > At some suburban gatherings it is easy to get the impression that the
> frolickers have nothing in common but sex, nothing else to talk about and
> joke about. If the parlor games do not achieve the organized level of
> ‘keysies’ they certainly get as far as ‘kneesies’ and ‘grabbies’ and other
> informal pastimes . . . .” (Keysies, by the way, is a game where the girls
> toss their keys on the floor and the men pick one and disappear with its
> owner! )
> >
> >
> https://archive.org/details/sim_u-s-coast-guard-magazine_1956-03_29_5/page/28/mode/1up?q=%22toss+their+keys%22
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>

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