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LF: YL XYL YF PR?

To: [email protected]
Subject: LF: YL XYL YF PR?
From: "captbrian" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 20:36:27 +0100
Reply-to: [email protected]
Sender: <[email protected]>
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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