Puzzling POSSLQ

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Steve from Vestal, New York.

Well, what’s on your mind?

Well, a friend of mine was trying to come up with a name to call his new girlfriend, and we went through quite a few words, and I remembered one from years ago, Pazicu. When I looked it up in Google, no matter how poorly I spelled it, it didn’t come up. And I know I didn’t just imagine it because even my wife remembered it. I was hoping that you could tell me where the word POSICU came from.

POSICU.

So we’re talking about his girlfriend, and you’re looking for a way to refer to the relationship?

Yeah, a significant other, a girlfriend, you know, a partner. But it was a word that I think was very popular back in the maybe 80s or 90s.

Yeah, Steve, the word that you’re trying to think of is POSICU. Does that ring a bell?

POSICU.

POSICU.

Yeah, I remembered it as POSLQ, but POSLQ, that may explain why I couldn’t find it. Yeah, it’s the letters P-O-S-S-L-Q, which if you sound them out with the P-O-S-S as one unit, it’s POSLQ. And it comes from actually the U.S. Census Bureau, because back in the early 1970s, somebody there came up with this term that supposedly stands for person of opposite sex sharing living quarters or partner of opposite sex sharing living quarters.

So I don’t know if the new girlfriend is sharing living quarters.

Well, she’s not there yet, I don’t think. So, but probably soon.

So pre-possil cue.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Pre-possil cue.

Yeah, there you go. I like that.

In any case, this term that was used loosely in the Census Bureau got around and people thought, oh, well, that’s cute. You know, we need a word for this. And then you may remember CBS, at the time he was a radio reporter for CBS, Charles Osgood. Oh, remember Charles? He was great. Remember Charles? Yeah. And then he was on CBS Sunday morning, I think. He had a little poem that he recited that did a lot to popularize it. And it went, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do if you would be my Apostle Q, you live with me and I with you and you will be my Apostle Q. I’ll be your friend and so much more. That’s what Apostle Q is for. And everything we will confess, yes, even to the IRS.

But Martha, am I remembering that it was never officially adopted by the IRS? It was just used by somebody who worked there and then just kind of caught on that way?

That’s right. And part of the problem was that Posse Q failed to account for lots of different types of non-marital cohabitation. Like, for example, same-sex couples, of course, or a grandma who’s renting out rooms to four guys. You know, they were misreading that as four different sets of Posse Qs.

So there’s a bit of government gobbling.

Or maybe she was just a hot grandma.

That could be, too. Who knows?

Don’t bring us into your fantasy life, Steve.

Yeah, that’s right.

Yeah, keep that to yourself.

Yeah, okay, okay, I’m sorry.

But, yeah, in any case, that term caught on for a while, and people thought it was cute, and it sounded funny, and somebody sent it to advice columnist Ann Landers, and she published it, and so people were talking about it for a while, but, you know, it just sort of went by the wayside.

It just disappeared, yep.

Yeah. But there you go. Apostle kid. You were like a letter off, but Martha saved it.

Well, there’s a mystery solved. I knew I wasn’t imagining things.

Not at all. All right. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us. We really appreciate it, Steve.

And thank you for the call.

All right. Take care. Bye-bye.

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