|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
I was somewhat taken aback while reading Peacock's Crotchet Castle (first published 1831) when I came across the following piece of dialogue:
CAPTAIN FITZCHROME
I cannot believe, that, speaking thus of him, you mean to take him at all
LADY CLARINDA
Oh! I am out of my teens. I have been very much in love; but now I am come to years of discretion, and must think, like other people, of settling myself advantageously.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Given the period and the social position of the lady her comment seems fair enough. Or am I missing the point?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Bingley, was it the use of the word teens for that period that surprised you? It slightly surprises me, too, in that I've read a great deal of literature from the early 19th century, and I haven't noticed the use of the word teen to describe that period of youth.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
This comes from Webster’s 1828 edition via One-Look:
TEENS, n. [from teen, ten.] The years of one's age reckoned by the termination teen. These years begin with thirteen, and end with nineteen. Miss is in her teens.
Surprising, but...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I think it's teenager (as a noun) rather than being in one's teens which is the more recent coinage.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I wonder how prevalent a use of 'teens' there was in the early 19th century? Was it a hip word for the times?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
It was not the lady's sentiments that astonished me, but her expression of them, as WW surmises. The use of teens to mean the teenage years struck me as obviously being much older than I'd thought. If asked I would have said it dated back to the 1950s or 1960s at the most.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
the "teens" dates all the way back to 1673: Your poor young things, when they are once in the teens, think they shall never be married. (WYCHERLEY Gentl. Dancing Master). originally, teen was almost always used in the plural in phrases such as 'in or out of one's teens'.
"teen-ager" originated in the US around 1941: I never knew teen-agers could be so serious. (Pop. Sci. Monthly) [where 'teens' would have sufficed!]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
originally, teen was almost always used in the plural in phrases such as 'in or out of one's teens'.
Yes, that's it exactly. I wouldn't be surprised to read in such literature 'out of one's teens,' but referring to the group as the 'teens' is what is a bit more surprising. I don't believe it was much used in formal literature, but I certainly shall begin to keep my ears open for it when reading. [I am an aural reader and I won't explain. Other aural readers will immediately know what I'm talking about here.]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Do aural and oral sound the same to you? 'Cause they do to me.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,350
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
773
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
