View source for POSSLQ

{{Short description|United States census term for person of opposite sex sharing living quarters}}
{{use mdy dates|date=February 2015}}
'''POSSLQ''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|ɒ|s|əl|ˈ|k|j|uː}} {{respell|POSS|əl|KEW}}, plural '''POSSLQs''')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/POSSLQ?r=66|title=the definition of POSSLQ|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=May 1, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304134800/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/posslq?r=66|archive-date=March 4, 2016|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/POSSLQ |title=POSSLQ &#124; Definition of POSSLQ by Lexico |access-date=2015-02-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221212251/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/POSSLQ |archive-date=February 21, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> is an abbreviation (or [[acronym]]) for "'''person of opposite sex sharing living quarters'''",<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|POSSLQ}}</ref> 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|date=February 2015}}

After the [[United States Census, 1980|1980 Census]], the term gained currency in the wider culture for a time.<ref>{{cite news|last=Smith|first=Jack|title=Getting the Word Out The Time Is Right for 'POSSLQ' |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/64573296.html?dids=64573296:64573296&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+17%2C+1985&author=JACK+SMITH&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Getting+the+Word+Out+The+Time+Is+Right+for+`Posslq%27&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107143710/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/64573296.html?dids=64573296:64573296&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+17%2C+1985&author=JACK+SMITH&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Getting+the+Word+Out+The+Time+Is+Right+for+%60Posslq%27&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 7, 2012|access-date=September 11, 2011|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=17 November 1985}}</ref> 

After [[demography|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 United States census|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.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hartston|first=William|title=Words: POSSLQ n. (acronym)|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/words-posslq-n-acronym-1165691.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/words-posslq-n-acronym-1165691.html |archive-date=May 24, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=September 11, 2011|newspaper=The Independent on Sunday|date=18 June 1998}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
[[CBS]] commentator [[Charles Osgood]] composed a verse which includes

{{poemquote|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.<ref>{{cite web |last=McRae |first=Graeme |title=My POSSLQ, a poem by Charles Osgood |url=http://2000clicks.com/graeme/LangPoetryFunnyPOSSLQ.htm |access-date=February 20, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20150221040428/http://2000clicks.com/graeme/LangPoetryFunnyPOSSLQ.htm |archive-date=February 21, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>}}

Elliot Sperber, the writer of ''[[The Hartford Courant]]''{{'}}s weekly [[cryptogram]], invented a cryptogram that (when solved) said:
{{poemquote|Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue,
Won't you be my POSSLQ?{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}}}

In episode 20 of season 5 of the television show ''[[Cheers]]'', [[Frasier Crane]] and [[Lilith Sternin]] describe themselves as POSSLQs.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Dinner at Eight-ish |series=Cheers |first1=Frasier |last1=Crane |network=NBC |date=February 26, 1987}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Cohabitation in the United States]]
*[[Common-law marriage]]
*[[Family (U.S. census)]]
*[[Significant other]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|POSSLQ}}
* [https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0036/twps0036.html "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.

[[Category:Acronyms]]
[[Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in the United States]]
[[Category:1970s neologisms]]