The History of "Singlet"!
Mar. 17th, 2019 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeHi guys! Sneak again, doing pluralwiki work! I always thought that "singlet" (a word to describe non-plurals) was so intuitive and obvious that it cropped up in many places and that finding a source would be impossible, but apparently not so! As I dug through archives of websites and old BBS records that Astraea gave us, I was able to find that actually, "singlet" had one source and it disseminated outward over the course of twenty-five years!
Time Created: between 1987 (Astraea, 2007 June 26, paragraph 7) and October 5, 1992
Location Used: Everywhere
On February 1994, Iris of Astraea went into more detail on the BBS, stating that "B.C. [their ex-husband] started saying 'singlets' and now we all do. :)" (citation needed; same addendum)
This is super-fascinating to me, because as far as we can tell, this means "singlet" only exists through the efforts of Astraea! I haven't been able to do a thorough trawl yet, but the more common-purpose term I've seen in my glances through a.s.d. and the BBS records was "singleton," which DOES seem at a quick glance to have been the "so obvious it cropped up in multiple places at multiple times." This actually makes way more sense when I think about it, since "singlet" originally meant "man's undershirt," while "singleton" originally meant "something occurring or existing singly and not as one of a pair or of a group."
Astraea. (2003, January 11) Glossary [web page]. http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html Internet Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20030111103116/http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html
Astraea. (2007, June 26). A brief history of midcontinuum [web page]. http://karitas.net/pavilion/library/articles/m_midconthistory_temple0902.html Internet Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20070626190919/http://karitas.net/pavilion/library/articles/m_midconthistory_temple0902.html
Dark Personalities. (2001 May 19). Terminology [web page]. http://darkpersonalities.com/terminology.htm Internet Archive. Retrieved 2019/03/15 from https://web.archive.org/web/20010519115202/http://darkpersonalities.com/terminology.htm
Pavilion Hall. (2003, July 25). Terminology [web page]. http://www.tanuki.cx:80/pavilion/policies/glossary.html Internet Archive. Retrieved 2019/03/15 from https://web.archive.org/web/20030725121142/http://www.tanuki.cx:80/pavilion/policies/glossary.html
Quick Details
Created By: "B.C." (Astraea's ex-husband)Time Created: between 1987 (Astraea, 2007 June 26, paragraph 7) and October 5, 1992
Location Used: Everywhere
Circumstances of Creation
The first documented instance of the use of "singlet" to describe someone who wasn't multiple was on October 5, 1992 by Iris of Astraea on a plural BBS. It is unknown how long the term had been in existence before that. (citation needed once the data can be figured out in these stupid BBS records).On February 1994, Iris of Astraea went into more detail on the BBS, stating that "B.C. [their ex-husband] started saying 'singlets' and now we all do. :)" (citation needed; same addendum)
Dissemination
Astraea continued using the term "singlet" on alt.support.dissociation (1999, May 26), and it seems to have disseminated into more common use there as a result. Dark Personalities had the term in their glossary by 2001 (May 19), which inspired the Pavilion Hall's own glossary and definition (2003, July 25), which apparently Astraea then lifted for their own (2003, January 11). From there, the term seems to have spread into general use.This is super-fascinating to me, because as far as we can tell, this means "singlet" only exists through the efforts of Astraea! I haven't been able to do a thorough trawl yet, but the more common-purpose term I've seen in my glances through a.s.d. and the BBS records was "singleton," which DOES seem at a quick glance to have been the "so obvious it cropped up in multiple places at multiple times." This actually makes way more sense when I think about it, since "singlet" originally meant "man's undershirt," while "singleton" originally meant "something occurring or existing singly and not as one of a pair or of a group."
Citations
Astraea [Astraea Household]. (1999, May 26). And the Oscar Goes To... [newsgroup post] Retrieved from https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.support.dissociation/vOici6jDWmY/apKAuv57fb8JAstraea. (2003, January 11) Glossary [web page]. http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html Internet Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20030111103116/http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html
Astraea. (2007, June 26). A brief history of midcontinuum [web page]. http://karitas.net/pavilion/library/articles/m_midconthistory_temple0902.html Internet Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20070626190919/http://karitas.net/pavilion/library/articles/m_midconthistory_temple0902.html
Dark Personalities. (2001 May 19). Terminology [web page]. http://darkpersonalities.com/terminology.htm Internet Archive. Retrieved 2019/03/15 from https://web.archive.org/web/20010519115202/http://darkpersonalities.com/terminology.htm
Pavilion Hall. (2003, July 25). Terminology [web page]. http://www.tanuki.cx:80/pavilion/policies/glossary.html Internet Archive. Retrieved 2019/03/15 from https://web.archive.org/web/20030725121142/http://www.tanuki.cx:80/pavilion/policies/glossary.html
