Things have changed since I was a teenager in the eighties:
After a quick browse on the www I found the defintion of a date:- a social appointment, engagement, or occasion arranged beforehand with another person: ie to go out on a date on Saturday night.
According to my eldest, teenagers don't go on dates yet they arrange to meet at a specified place and time. Sounds like a date to me.
Another search, another defintion: - hang around or about, Informal.
| a. | to spend time in a certain place or in certain company: He hangs around with an older crowd. |
| b. | to linger about; loiter: They had stopped working and were just hanging around to talk. |
Again on the advice of Dillon teenagers don't hang out but they meet to spend time together in a certain place or in certain company. They also linger and some may even say they loiter. Sounds like hanging out to me.
I love the conversations Dillon and I have, he's very articulate and witty with an awful lot of knowledge and can usually catch me out in a debate. Today I was victorious...... not that I was looking for victory of course but it is nice to be right!
As you may surmise from the discussion we were having, Dillon has a girlfriend who he meets at arranged times and places to spend time with and maybe even linger BUT they are not dates and they do not hang out.
I guess I'll have to learn some new phrases.
12 comments:
I never would have said the word date as a teenager myself- sounds too formal. I would just say going out. But hanging out...I'm surprised they don't use that. I'll have to listen more closely to my daughter's conversations. I suppose lingo moves on.
I love it- you have got to the old fashioned stage and don't understand the lingo and in anycase parents are never right don't you remember!!
Ask them if he 'made out' = American for 'snog'.
Also, if you recall, in 80s Britain, there was no such thing as 'dating' which is another Americanism, there was simply 'going out with'.
Btw - American 'dating', which I never got the hang of or much cared for myself apparently allows you to date several people at once which sounds like an awful idea to me. There are certain rules which I have never fully understood.
I agree with Emma.. we just went out :) and I am also surprised that hanging out is not in the lingo these days.
I think prehaps you misunderstand me. Yes when I was young you went out with someone. Dillon and I debate things and I said if you arrange to meet someone at a set time and place it is a date, you may not want to call it a date but nonetheless it is a date, in my book anyway.
I also love that Dillon and I can dicuss things frankly and, more importantly, have a laugh!
Ha ha ha ha! Very funny.
OK, from an old Yank: "Dating" is way, way archaic. I didn't even use the word back in the late 60s. (Well, that's probably because I couldn't get a date.)
cookiecrumb you are a real tonic and make me laugh. As if we believe you couldn't get a date.
beccy it's great that you can discuss things with Dillon. I don't recall you and Sam really wanting to talk to me over much. Although I did meet most of the 'boyfriends' I think !!
In NZ it seems to be 'meeting up' or 'hanging out' and when it is serious 'hooking up'. Of my two boys one tells me everything (and I mean everything) and one tells me nothing.
Yes we "went out". And in a very convoluted way, we "went out to a party" "went out to the cinema on Saturday" "went out to So and So's house" etc, but never called it a date at all. But then I am a few years older than you, and maybe things did change a bit, so that you lot went out together, but on "dates". More sensible really.
Teenage Americanisms started to creep in in the late 70's with the advent of Grease, and the birth of teenage sleepovers. But according to Cookie Crumb, not to "date". So what do the true Americans say please Cookie Crumb?
As for teenage lingo though, what about the fact that it's not a "party" if there are under 30 or so present, but a gathering......
We are in serious trouble of we get that one wrong.. It is a laugh though ,and as they say it keeps you young!!
Sally
p.s. Aged 8 has a date though! (Or a going out, oir a hang out or something like that. On Wednesday. Jack is coming for tea. Watch the blog for details thereafter....)
Sally :)
Didn't realise this post would result in so many comments. From them all I think we can safely conclude that dating is out but we're not entirely sure of the 'in' words to use instead.
Looking forward to hearing about the big date (for want of a better word) Sally.
Indeed!
Will keep you posted!!!!
Sally
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