bobby soxer

See also: bobbysoxer and bobby-soxer

English

Alternative forms

• bobby-soxer, bobbysoxer

Etymology

From the bobby socks that they wore; bobby sox +‎ -er.

Noun

bobby soxer (plural bobby soxers)

1. (historical) 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, chapter 1, in The Beautiful Room Is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994:

     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