[Ads-l] Antedating of "Baby Boom" (Post-World War II)

[dave@wilton.net]

Here's an earlier one applying the term prospectively to the expected post-war increase in the birthrate. This one appears to be a transitional usage of "baby boom" to mean *any* increase in the birthrate to *the* post-WWII one.
 
 
“Baby Boom Over.” Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), 4 February 1945, 4/3. Newspapers.com.
 
"The Commerce Department reported Saturday night that the Nation’s birth rate, which rose 30 per cent above prewar levels in the year after Pearl Harbor, now is declining and will stay that way until the end of hostilities precipitates another baby boom."
 
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Subject: [ADS-L] Antedating of "Baby Boom" (Post-World War II)



Baby Boom (OED, 2., 1948)

1946 Iola (Kansas) Register 1 May 1 / 2 (Newspapers.com)

The baby boom is creating a demand for milk out of proportion to population increases that will be sustained for several years.

Fred Shapiro

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