POSSLQ ( , plural POSSLQs) is an abbreviation (or
acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
) for "Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters", a term coined in the late 1970s by the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of
cohabitation
Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...
in American households.
After the
1980 Census, the term gained currency in the wider culture for a time.
After
demographers
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...
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
The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS uses the data to publish reports early each month called the Em ...
starting in 1995. By the late 1990s, the term POSSLQ had fallen out of general usage (having been replaced by "
significant other
The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...
") and returned to being a specialized term for demographers.
In popular culture
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
commentator
Charles Osgood
Charles Osgood Wood III (born January 8, 1933), known professionally as Charles Osgood, is an American radio and television commentator, writer and musician. Osgood is best known for being the host of ''CBS News Sunday Morning'', a role he held ...
composed a verse which includes
Elliot Sperber, the writer of ''
The Hartford Courant
The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...
''s weekly
cryptogram
A cryptogram is a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand. Substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by ...
, invented a cryptogram that (when solved) said:
In a fifth-season episode of the television show ''
Cheers
''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...
'',
Frasier Crane
Dr. Frasier Winslow Crane (born ) is a fictional character who is both a supporting character on the American television sitcom ''Cheers'' and the titular protagonist of its spin-off ''Frasier'', portrayed by Kelsey Grammer. The character debu ...
and
Lilith Sternin
Lilith Sternin (formerly Sternin-Crane) is a fictional character on the American television sitcoms ''Cheers'' and '' Frasier'', portrayed by Bebe Neuwirth. The character first appears as a date for Frasier Crane, though mutual hostility and d ...
describe themselves as POSSLQs.
See also
*
Cohabitation in the United States
Cohabitation in the United States is loosely defined as two or more people, in an intimate relationship, who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union.
*
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil ...
*
Family (U.S. Census)
*
Significant other
The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...
References
External links
{{Wiktionary, POSSLQ
"How Does POSSLQ Measure Up? Historical Estimates of Cohabitation" a U.S. Census Bureau working paper by Lynne M. Casper, Philip N. Cohen and Tavia Simmons, May 1999.
Acronyms
Marriage, unions and partnerships in the United States
1970s neologisms