POSSLQ (/ˌpɒsəlˈkjuː/ POSS-əl-KEW, plural POSSLQs)[1][2] is an abbreviation (or acronym) for "person of opposite sex sharing living quarters",[3] a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of cohabitation in American households.[citation needed]

After the 1980 Census, the term gained currency in the wider culture for a time.[4]

After demographers observed the increasing frequency of cohabitation over the 1980s, the Census Bureau began directly asking respondents to their major surveys whether they were "unmarried partners", thus making obsolete the old method of counting cohabitors, which involved a series of assumptions about "persons of opposite sex sharing living quarters". The category "unmarried partner" first appeared in the 1990 Census, and was incorporated into the monthly Current Population Survey starting in 1995. By the late 1990s, the term POSSLQ had fallen out of general usage (having been replaced by "significant other") and returned to being a specialized term for demographers.[5]

CBS commentator Charles Osgood composed a verse which includes

There's nothing that I wouldn't do If you would be my POSSLQ You live with me and I with you, And you will be my POSSLQ. I'll be your friend and so much more; That's what a POSSLQ is for.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "the definition of POSSLQ". Dictionary.com. Archived March 4, 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  2. ^ "POSSLQ | Definition of POSSLQ by Lexico". Archived from the original on February 21, 2015. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  3. ^
  4. ^ Smith, Jack (17 November 1985). "Getting the Word Out The Time Is Right for 'POSSLQ'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
  5. ^ Hartston, William (18 June 1998). "Words: POSSLQ n. (acronym)". The Independent on Sunday. Archived May 24, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
  6. ^ McRae, Graeme. "My POSSLQ, a poem by Charles Osgood". Archived February 21, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 20, 2015.