No. Remember this was all devised long before before ww2.
OM equalled "old man" as a form of address of pre-war everyday useage
similar to "mate" or "chum" today .
YL equalled Young Lady - ie "my girl-friend " or even " steady " today.
. In polite pre-war days courtship had serious and honourable intentions so
it was assumed that courtship ended in marriage not just an "affaire".
After marrying the "Young Lady" she became ex-Young-Lady. Hence XYL - not
an insult but a compliment.
When I was a bright-eyed teenager (around the beginning of time according to
my grandchildren now ) YF was equally common-place morse usage for Wife,
but that seems to have died.
Of course, if so called same-sex marriages catch on a whole new raft of
abbreviations could be devised !!
' Morse code usage is a living social history ' - discuss. ;-))
Bryan G3GVB
-----Original Message-----
From: Alberto di Bene <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Date: 14 July 2003 14:51
Subject: Re: LF: Re: stress with xyl
Hugh M0WYE wrote:
I can't understand how the CW abreviation XYL came about. Please check my
OM stands for Old Man and YL stands for Young Lady, supposedly the wife
of the old man.
XYL was introduced to indicate a next-to-become YL, i.e. the fiancee,
before marriage.
Then it became customary to indicate the wife with XYL, but the correct
way should be YL.
73 Alberto I2PHD
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