bobby soxer

bobby soxer

See also: bobbysoxer and bobby-soxer

English

Alternative forms

• bobby-soxer
• bobbysoxer

Etymology

From the bobby socks that they wore.

Noun

bobby soxer (plural bobby soxers)

1. (dated) In the 1940s, a young woman or teenage girl who was a zealous fan of traditional pop, especially of Frank Sinatra.

   Coordinate term: teenybopper

   • 1988, Edmund White, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, New York: Vintage International, 1994, Chapter One,

     From my mother I’d learned that “nice” people should always frequent “nice” places, but here was Maria, certifiably nice, who relished the diner, twirled on the metal stool like a bobby-soxer, and punched out tunes on the jukebox.

   • 2006, Ilana Nash, American Sweethearts: Teenage Girls in Twentieth-century Popular Culture, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 165:

     After having played both Judy Graves and Corliss Archer, Shirley Temple finally cemented her latter-day reputation as Hollywood's ultimate bobby-soxer when she starred in the only film to use the term in its title: The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947).

Translations

1940s young woman or teenage girl

Finnish: nilkkasukkatyttö

Further reading

• bobby soxer (music) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia