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Carpal Tunnel
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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
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Given the period and the social position of the lady her comment seems fair enough. Or am I missing the point?
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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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...
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old hand
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old hand
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I think it's teenager (as a noun) rather than being in one's teens which is the more recent coinage.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wonder how prevalent a use of 'teens' there was in the early 19th century? Was it a hip word for the times?
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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
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Carpal Tunnel
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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!]
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.]
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old hand
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old hand
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Do aural and oral sound the same to you? 'Cause they do to me.
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