In a TV sitcom, I just heard a teenager speaking.

quote:

Oh my god. Now I've got two jobs. I'm working for my dad, and I'm working for Randy. [pause] It's like I'm a workaholic. [pause] I gotta tell you, that's not the kind of holic I thought I'd be.

Funny -- but the show was "That 70s Show." Was the term 'workaholic' in use in the 1970s?

The OED Online's first citation for workaholic is from 1968. Confessions of a Workaholic was published in 1971.

Tinman

Yes, but how prevalent was the word? When had it become common enough that it would be a work a teenager might use?

And how the devil does one test this?

The word doesn't seem to have caught on until at least 1977. Here are the number of times it appeared in The New York Times, in each year up to 1980:

1973: 1
1974: 1
1975: 7
1976: 12
1977: 28
1978: 24
1979: 29

The show started taking place in 1976, and has gone on for 6-7 seasons now, so it is quite possible the episode you watched was after the word became part of the American lexicon.

Thanks, Seanahan. In other words, it's borderline but proper.

How about a game, for the two of us and anyone else who wishes: watch the show a bit, and see what language anacronisms we can catch?

Golly, I was so YOUNG in the 70s . . . it will be harder for me to catch things that are wrong.

Well, where in the world have you been, Sean? We have missed you! Welcome back!

Just to resuscitate a moribund thread for a while ...

At the end of the show, in the credits, there is a mock-up of a Wisconsin license plate. In the lower right-hand corner is the year in which the show is set, varying from 76 to 79 depending on the series.

From memory, Randy doesn't appear until the later episodes, so they would have been set in 1978/9.

quote:

At the end of the show, in the credits, there is a mock-up of a Wisconsin license plate..

>sigh..< you mean to tell me my classy new Brit word-o-phile colleagues go slumming on ancient American sitcoms?

( my dh & I are the worst kind of pop-culture slummers.. we & our teen offspring made that one our family dinner-hour show every night for about a year... then it was... back to Simpsons!)

Oh, bethree5, my family does the same thing. We watch tv when we have our family meals (or what we pass as family meals). Usually we pick a movie, though, as we often can't agree on some tv show . . . unless it's the Simpsons!

The last episode of That '70s Show was supposed to take place on New Years Eve 1979. It was one of the better US sitcoms, created by the same folks who did 3rd Rock From the Sun.

Interesting that those 2 shows are related because, while it's just a matter of taste of course, I never have liked either show.

I liked both "70's" and "Third Rock" when they were in their first few seasons, but alas, like so many series they lost their fun and newness after 2-3 seasons. Very few series keep my interest for longer than that.

I don't really choose what is on TV often anymore - I just end up watching what DH and DS choose, so it's consequentially a lot of CSI-type shows and military history (yawn!) . . . but at least we can all agree on . . . The Simpsons!

quote:

you mean to tell me my classy new Brit word-o-phile colleagues go slumming on ancient American sitcoms?

I can't speak for the others, but this one does. There's a dearth of good programming on UK TV, so I'll often watch That 70s Show, which runs on two different channels, one with two episodes between 7pm and 8pm, the other has another two between 8pm and 9pm. I also liked Third Rock and Married with Children.

To a degree I prefer to slob out in front of the TV in the evening and give my brain a rest. Those shows are good for that.

Hmmm. And I like to slum in front of the TV watching old Brit-coms: "Are You Being Served," "As Time Goes By," "Waiting for God," "Keeping Up Appearances." This is what happens when the teenagers grow up and leave home. You get to watch anything you want...or at least half of what you want. With my husband, I tend to watch baseball (if it's football I usually get up and leave the room) and history, but he loves the Brit-coms too--and then there's "Scrubs," our current addiction.

I'm sure there are plenty of anachronisms in any of the "coms" to go around. I just haven't spotted them.

Wordmatic

I suppose it's good that we don't all like the same shows, but "Scrubs" is another I don't like. I am sounding negative, aren't I? I agree with Arnie, though, that I like to lounge in front of the TV when I am tired and watch comedies, as I am also on my computer...often watching reruns such as "Frasier" or "Friends."

As for "workaholic," I surely would have thought that word was older than that!