Saturday, February 2, 2013

Personal Ad Jargon Discovered


According to Wikipedia, Personal Ads in Britain are referred to as an ad in a Lonely Hearts Column.
Upon collecting many personal ads from Craigslist today, I decided to familiarize myself with the jargon and abbreviation used in the ads. Below is a short listing of my findings (most are from Wikipedia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_advertisement):

There are often three letters. For example, SWF, we all know from that movie- but what does DWM mean? The first letter usually describes the relationship status or sometimes sexuality of the person.



The middle letter is usually referring to race. Isn't it strange that this is the next most important thing after relationship status? It even comes before gender.

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The last letter usually describes the gender of the writer.

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Sometimes there are codes that describe the writer, such as BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) or WE (Well Endowed), but sometimes the codes are just abbreviations/acronyms- such as LTR (Long Term Relationship).
  • ALA: all letters answered
  • ALAWP: all letters answered with a photo (probably means the advertiser will only reply to letters that attach a photo)
  • GSOH: good sense of humor
  • ISO: in search of
  • LTR: long-term relationship
  • MBA: mutual business arrangement
  • NSc: non-scene
  • OHAC: own house and car
  • PnP: party and play
  • WE: well endowed
  • WLTM: would like to meet
  • nnYO: nn years old; for example, 23yo = 23 years old

The most common codes/acronyms I found were as follows (in this order):
1) LTR
2) BBW
3) _D_
4) ISO

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