To the prom or to prom?

[mamadeb]

This is driving me nuts - when did this change?

When I was in high school (class of 1981), no one went "to prom" or took someone "to prom". It was always "the prom." You don't take someone to movies, or to restaurant, or to school dance, or even go to senior breakfast.

But in the last two or three years, that's what I'm hearing. Oh, people still say "the prom" as part of the prepositional phrase, but I'm hearing the phrase without the article a lot lately - I'm thinking about last night's Without a Trace, but also Grey's Anatomy last year. Or was it two years ago? Whatever - the one with the prom in the hospital.

When did people start dropping the "the" when it comes to the prom?

Okay. From what I've gathered, it's mostly a regionalism that may have been made more general by the movie Pretty in Pink.

Comments

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

Since "promenade" is often a verb, it may be a reversion to an older usage of the word. I know that usage used to be standard in various parts of the South. You used to dress up as nicely as you could, have cookies and punch, and then walk around the town square with your date for 5-20 minute intervals (the actual promenade) instead of dancing.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

The context puts "prom" as a noun, not a verb in this case, so I don't know.

I do know that "prom" comes from "promenade", but I'm not sure that high school students would.

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

*shrug* People mimic what they hear; the original may have had a resurgence.

Or maybe they're imitating British usage.

Or maybe a popular movie or TV show said it that way, and they're all aping that.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Brits only started having proms in the past few years.

I'm beginning to think it's a combination of regionalism and Pretty in Pink.

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

But they do have Proms as a series of concerts in the Royal Albert Hall in the summer and early fall. I went to one in 1988.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You went to an end of term dance in the summer of 1988?

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

No. I went to a summer classical music concert in England in 1988. See here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2007/).

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

My Sr. Prom was 13 years ago and we said "to prom" or "to the prom" (mostly the former). It might also be a regional thing, and not just a generational thing. (My prom was in Baltimore, MD, if that makes a difference)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It might. I went to school in New Jersey, which is close geographically but not linguistically, so far as I can tell.

But I'm also thinking about tv and movies from when I was that age. I'd have noticed "Come with me to prom." I think. Because it sounds odd now, and if it didn't sound odd then, it wouldn't sound odd now. Or something.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

For sure when we asked each other to be dates... we said "come with me to prom" not "to the prom". I went to three proms between 1991 and 1994.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Nod. Regionalism might have played a part, but it seems to be universal now.

I'm going to put part of the blame on Pretty in Pink, which may have made a regionalism popular.

[chvickers.livejournal.com]

The big change here is that there *is* a prom. When I graduated (class of 1981 - hey!), we had a senior dance but not a prom.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes.

"Proms" have been American things since at least - huh - since the late 19th C, according to some sources, but they didn't begin to reach today's levels until the thirties.

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

And they're different things in HS and some colleges. In HS, they're the big formal dance at the end of the senior (and maybe junior?) years. In my college, it was a big dinner-dance with parents just before graduation.

[kid-lit-fan.livejournal.com]

I first heard it in Pretty in Pink, which was '86. It was "the Prom" when I graduated in '84, in San Francisco. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0091790/quotes)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

See, this makes sense to me. It was a hugely popular movie, and such things will change speech patterns, if it wasn't a regionalism already.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's a regional thing. I went to "the prom" in New York.

Pretty in Pink is in Illinois, and they go "to prom." Carrie is in Maine and they go to "the prom."

I had never heard it without the article until PiP and that's when I think I started hearing it depended what area of the country you were from. It probably depends on whoever writes the script or who the actors are.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Carrie was published in 1975 or so, which makes a difference.

I think PiP made a regionalism more general, but it might have taken a few years.

[coffee-n-cocoa.livejournal.com]

I graduated in '86, and as I recall, even in the KC area back then it was 'to prom', for the most part.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Another check in the "regionalism" box.

[destina.livejournal.com]

I went to prom in 1985, and as you can see: I went to prom. *g*

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Where was that?

[destina.livejournal.com]

California. However, FWIW, I moved to California in '82, and at my HS in southern Indiana, it was the same thing.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

So, another point for regionalism. Nod.

[kelilah.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm pretty sure I went to *the* prom, in Massachusetts, in 1997. Silly regionalisms. ;^)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Yep. :) Hmm. Northeast thing, maybe?

[gmth.livejournal.com]

I have been wondering about this, too. It makes sense if it's a regional and/or generational thing, since I'm in PA and we said "to the prom" in 1983. "To prom" looks weird and very, very young to me.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Northeast again, and you're prePiP, so...huh.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I'm also in PA, and we said "to the prom" in 1993/94.

My youngest sister (also in PA) is graduating from high school this year; she says "to the prom", as well.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Well, I graduated in '73 and it was "to the prom" then.

But I have notice a shift to drop "the" in a few cases and I'm starting to do in some situations.

Like some of my Aussie friends don't say "to the university" or "to the hospital". It's "to university" or "to hospital" and I've started to pick it up in writing if not that much in speech.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I find the Britishism charming, but if USans do it, affected.

Which probably says things about me. :)

[kid-lit-fan.livejournal.com]

I learned (in a Dickens Faire language workshop) that it's "to hospital" or "in hospital" if you're a patient. If you're visiting, you're going "to the hospital."

Actually, in America, it's the same for most things, just not hospital. You go to jail if you've been arrested, you go to the jail to visit Daddy. You go to court if you've been summoned, you go to the courthouse to pick up papers or for a field trip. My daughter goes to school, but I go to the school, my daughter's school, Catherine's school, etc.

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna side with tod_hollykim on this one, because my first response to your post was that "the prom" is not the only (nor, indeed, the first) place I'e seen people dropping the "the".

Further, being pre-PiP since I graduated high school in 1970 (in Queens, NY), the dropping of the definite article kind of makes me cringe a bit, although I'm getting used to seeing and hearing it.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

The missing definite article may have escaped to another usage. More and more, I hear people using it to refer to roads or highways. Younger people are saying, for example, "Take *the* I-95 north." This seems to have started on the West Coast, but since that's where Hollywood is, it's gaining currency rapidly because of how often people hear it in movies and on TV.

There's definitely a generational pattern to this usage, too. On the West Coast, people 50 or so and younger do if fairly consistently. On the East Coast, it seems to be mostly those <30.

YMMV. Feel free to enlighten me if so, but that's the pattern I've noticed.