A twentieth-century word for writing to strangers, from the heyday of correspondence clubs.
A friend made and kept through letters.
| Type | Historical language |
|---|---|
| Category | Reply and contact |
| Word dated | 1925, Merriam-Webster |
| Most common | 1920s to the 1990s |
Pen pal is dated to 1925 by Merriam-Webster, from the decade when correspondence clubs and friendship magazines took off. Writing to strangers was already old: Civil War soldiers and the women who wrote to them used the personal columns to find correspondents. Pen pal gave the practice a friendly name.
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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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