# Etymology of “californication” **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2015, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427 "2015-03-07T09:11:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/1 "2015-03-07T09:11:09Z")
There was of course a [TV series with this name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californication_(TV_series)) and also an album by the [Red Hot Chili Peppers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californication_(album)) from 1999. IMHO, californication is a witty play on words as it captures a certain way of life in a particular location and puts it all into one expression. I wonder, though, whether the word is a neologism which was created fairly recently by a clever song writer or whether it has been around for much longer. What are the origins, when was it first used? ---
**Author:** ![jezzaOZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jezzaOZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jezzaOZ)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/2 "2015-03-07T10:14:55Z")
It’s at least as far back as 1966 in Time Magazine. And to get there it’s probably much older. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/3 "2015-03-07T10:27:51Z")
The term is _portmanteau_ word: California + fornication. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/4 "2015-03-07T11:43:17Z")
Google N-gram viewer fails us in this case, not giving any results. Wikipedia agrees with **jezza** that the first recorded use is 1966, and giving further background: > [@](#): > > Californication is a portmanteau of the words California and fornication, appearing in Time on May 6, 1966[1] and written about on August 21, 1972, additionally seen on bumper stickers in the U.S. states of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho,[2] Washington,[3] and Oklahoma.[4][5] > > It was a term popular in the 1970s and referring primarily to the “haphazard, mindless development [of land] that has already gobbled up most of Southern California”,[6] which some attributed to an influx of Californians to other states in the Western United States. > **[Californication (word)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californication_(word))** > > Californication is a portmanteau of California and fornication, appearing in Time on May 6, 1966 and written about on August 21, 1972, additionally seen on bumper stickers in the U.S. states of Idaho, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Texas. > It was a term popular in the 1970s and referring primarily to the "haphazard, mindless development \[of land\] that has already gobbled up most of Southern California", which some attributed to an influx of Californians to other states in the Western... _California_, by the way, is curiously appropriate for this, and not just because it has _-forni-_ in it. The name comes from a 1510 novel that has been described as “mildly pornographic”. To quote from a translation: > [@](#): > > Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores > **[Etymology of California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_California)** > > Multiple theories regarding the origin of the name California, as well as the root language of the term, have been proposed, but most historians believe the name likely originated from a 16th-century novel, Las sergas de Esplandián. The novel, popular at the time of the Spanish exploration of Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula, describes a fictional island named California, ruled by a queen named Calafia, east of the Indies.\[a\] The author of the novel, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, also k Wh... ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/5 "2015-03-07T12:36:48Z")
Here’s the mention of “californication” in the May 6, 1966 issue of Time: > **[Books: Nosepicking Contests](https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901889,00.html?internalid=atb100)** > > The Beat Generation of writing is forget it. Some curly new hair is > coming up in Beardsville. The new boys still haven't found a name—The > Camp Crowd? The Hallucinogeneration?—but they... Note that the term isn’t defined. It’s used like it already was a common term. I suspect that it had existed for decades, but magazine and newspaper writers were reluctant to use it because it was a little risqué. The entry from Wikipedia on the word says that the attitude (opposition to becoming like California) had certainly existed since at least the 1940’s. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/6 "2015-03-07T14:03:34Z")
“Don’t Californicate Oregon” was a common sticker around 1985 or so, at least in northern Cal. Which was why you also saw quite a few “Welcome to California. Now go home.” stickers, too. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/7 "2015-03-07T15:56:37Z")
I first heard the term when I lived in Colorado in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/8 "2015-03-10T13:23:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Google N-gram viewer fails us in this case, not giving any results. Did you try it [with a capital initial C](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Californication&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CCalifornication%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CCalifornication%3B%2Cc1)? There’s a 1955 witticism: “Californication: A type of concubinage with frequent changes of partner, in Hollywood circles often rendered legal by marriage ceremonies.” and one earlier (1947) usage in the biography of one Isaac Kalloch: "Isaac was pictured as the only male in the state who could satisfy his many succubi, and the Californication took place on his couch in City Hall, in the Temple, in saloons, in his carriage, in his home, oh, just anywhere. " ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/9 "2015-03-10T17:09:07Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Did you try it [with a capital initial C](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Californication&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CCalifornication%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CCalifornication%3B%2Cc1)? > There’s a 1955 witticism: “Californication: A type of concubinage with frequent changes of partner, in Hollywood circles often rendered legal by marriage ceremonies.” Google Books sources that one to a journal, _The American Book Collector_. I wouldn’t trust the date Google gives; as a heavy user of Google Books I can attest that its dating of journals, magazines, and government reports is very unreliable. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-californication/714427/10 "2015-03-10T18:06:52Z")
Not a written cite, but my Dad talked about there being Don’t Californicate Oregon postcards and bumper stickers being available for purchase in Oregon before I was born, and that was 1956. Maybe a search for postcards or bumper stickers would bring up earlier dates.