A word that meant different things to different readers for half a century.
Open-minded and tolerant, and at times a signal of something more.
| Type | Historical language |
|---|---|
| Category | Coded language |
| Most common | 1920s to the 1960s |
Broad-minded had a double life in personal ads. In the 1920s it was one of the words gay men used in The Link. In 1968 the very first personal ad in the New York Review of Books wanted a wife who was intelligent, beautiful, broad-minded, sensitive, affectionate.
Sources: UK National Archives, Queer classified adverts and love letters in the 1920s; UK National Archives, Bohemian, broad-minded, unconventional; The New York Review of Books, Where the Elite Meet to Mate.
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How this fits into 170 years of personal ad shorthand: From Object Matrimony to LTR: How Personal Ads Learned to Talk in Code.
All dictionary entries · The Personals Archive · How to write a personal ad
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