POSSLQ is an abbreviation (or acronym) for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about...
as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of
cohabitationCohabitation is when people live together in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married....
in American households.
After the
1980 CensusThe Twentieth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4 percent over the 203,184,772 persons enumerated during the 1970 Census.-Census questions:...
, against all odds, the term gained currency in the wider culture for a time, with
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
commentator
Charles OsgoodCharles Osgood is a radio and television commentator in the United States. His daily program, The Osgood File, has been broadcast on the CBS Radio Network since 1971. He is also famous for giving the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book...
memorably composing 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.
Elliot Sperber, the writer of the Hartford Courant's weekly
cryptogramA cryptogram is a type of puzzle which consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that cryptogram can be solved by hand. Frequently used are substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by a different letter or number. To solve...
, invented a cryptogram that (when solved) said:
- "Roses are Red,
- Violets are Blue,
- Won't you be my POSSLQ?"
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 SurveyThe Current Population Survey is a statistical survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics . The BLS uses the data to provide a monthly report on the Employment Situation. This report provides estimates of the number of unemployed people in the United...
starting in 1995.
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POSSLQ is an abbreviation (or acronym) for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about...
as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of
cohabitationCohabitation is when people live together in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married....
in American households.
After the
1980 CensusThe Twentieth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4 percent over the 203,184,772 persons enumerated during the 1970 Census.-Census questions:...
, against all odds, the term gained currency in the wider culture for a time, with
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
commentator
Charles OsgoodCharles Osgood is a radio and television commentator in the United States. His daily program, The Osgood File, has been broadcast on the CBS Radio Network since 1971. He is also famous for giving the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book...
memorably composing 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.
Elliot Sperber, the writer of the Hartford Courant's weekly
cryptogramA cryptogram is a type of puzzle which consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that cryptogram can be solved by hand. Frequently used are substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by a different letter or number. To solve...
, invented a cryptogram that (when solved) said:
- "Roses are Red,
- Violets are Blue,
- Won't you be my POSSLQ?"
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 SurveyThe Current Population Survey is a statistical survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics . The BLS uses the data to provide a monthly report on the Employment Situation. This report provides estimates of the number of unemployed people in the United...
starting in 1995. By the late 1990s, the term had fallen out of general usage, and returned to being a specialized term for
demographersDemography is the statistical study of all populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
.
See also
- Cohabitation in the United States
Cohabitation in the United States is illegal in six states but a total of 4.85 million couples live together.-Statistics:In most parts of the United States, there is no legal registration or definition of cohabitation, so demographers have developed various methods of identifying cohabitation and...
- Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called de facto marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status which is legally recognized in some jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage contract...
- Significant other
Significant other is a gender-blind, politically correct term to refer to a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about their marital status or sexual orientation. It is also vague enough to avoid offence from using a term that an individual might...
External links