# The use of "party" as a verb. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645 "2012-03-03T16:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/1 "2012-03-03T16:05:50Z")
Has been around for a while. From the Online Etymology Dictionary; > [@](#): > > The verb is first attested 1922, from the noun. I really don’t remember the verb usage being popular until the disco era, I guess the 70s or 80s. Up till then we said “go to” or “give” a party, or something along those lines. Maybe I lived a sheltered life. I dunno. I was born in 1945 in Bakersfield, CA and mostly lived there till around 1980, after I became aware of the common usage. So, am I alone in my naïveté? Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![santorum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@santorum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/santorum)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/2 "2012-03-03T16:15:40Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Has been around for a while. From the Online Etymology Dictionary; > > I really don’t remember the verb usage being popular until the disco era, I guess the 70s or 80s. Up till then we said “go to” or “give” a party, or something along those lines. > Maybe I lived a sheltered life. I dunno. I was born in 1945 in Bakersfield, CA and mostly lived there till around 1980, after I became aware of the common usage. > So, am I alone in my naïveté? > Peace, > mangeorge Seems common to me. “We were partying until 12 o’clock.” ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/3 "2012-03-03T16:52:02Z")
> [@santorum](#): > > Seems common to me. “We were partying until 12 o’clock.” I don’t mean now, I’m asking about when did it come into popular use. You probably have to be old to remember back that far. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/4 "2012-03-03T17:01:05Z")
Verbing weirds language. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/5 "2012-03-03T17:30:05Z")
Some people use “rage” in the same way lately. That one kind of annoys me. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/6 "2012-03-03T17:32:03Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Verbing weirds language. That phrase weirds me out. Maybe because “weirds” isn’t a complete verb phrase, I feel like it should be “weirds out,” but language can’t be an object of weirding out because it doesn’t have emotions! :v No thread contribution, I’m afraid. I was born in the 80s and all the cool cats who came before me already established partying. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/7 "2012-03-03T17:35:52Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Some people use “rage” in the same way lately. That one kind of annoys me. Not sure what you mean by ‘lately’, but I definitely used this word back when I used to, uh, rage on weekends. Late 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/8 "2012-03-03T17:38:38Z")
This is one vocabulary change I endorse. “Giving a party” and “going to a party” do not express the same meaning as “partying”. And I can’t offhand think of another word that expresses the same meaning. But to address the OP, I have no recollection of how long it’s been in use. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/9 "2012-03-03T17:42:12Z")
Based on some cursory looking thru Google News Archives, it appears to have started becoming more popular as a verb in the 1950s (at least so far as an accepted journalistic usage). I found a 1935 article where it is in quotation marks, indicating that it was probably not in common journalistic usage at that time, but maybe moreso in common parlance. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/10 "2012-03-03T17:51:00Z")
I don’t remember this usage when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, but that doesn’t prove anything. This question was partially addressed here: [Word Maven](http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990224) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/11 "2012-03-03T17:55:45Z")
I just checked the OED, and their earliest print citation for “party” in the sense of “To give a party; to attend a party; to have a good time. In extended use: to take drugs or drink alcohol (usually with others in a social context)” is from 1922. ETA: The phrase “party hearty” was in use by the mid '50s, as the OED cites it as appearing in a _Washington Post_ headline in 1955, so the use of “party” as a very was presumably fairly common by then. I am surprised the OP had not heard this usage before the '80s, if only because the 1975 Kiss song “Rock and Roll All Nite” – a modest hit at the time, and probably one of their better-known songs today – features the line “I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day.” ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/12 "2012-03-03T18:21:10Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I just checked the OED, and their earliest print citation for “party” in the sense of “To give a party; to attend a party; to have a good time. In extended use: to take drugs or drink alcohol (usually with others in a social context)” is from 1922. > > ETA: The phrase “party hearty” was in use by the mid '50s, as the OED cites it as appearing in a _Washington Post_ headline in 1955, so the use of “party” as a very was presumably fairly common by then. > > I am surprised the OP had not heard this usage before the '80s, if only because the 1975 Kiss song “Rock and Roll All Nite” – a modest hit at the time, and probably one of their better-known songs today – features the line “I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day.” The OP _did_ say “70s or 80s”. But the rest of your post might explain part of my ignorance. Are a group of 9 yr/olds trying to pin a tail on a donkey while blindfolded “partying”? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/13 "2012-03-03T18:33:20Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > The OP _did_ say “70s or 80s”. > But the rest of your post might explain part of my ignorance. Are a group of 9 yr/olds trying to pin a tail on a donkey while blindfolded “partying”? Only if they’re getting smashed and toking up before cake and ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/14 "2012-03-03T18:38:06Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Verbing weirds language. Thank you for gifting that to us. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/15 "2012-03-03T18:43:16Z")
Today “party” as a verb is generally synonymous with doing drugs. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/16 "2012-03-03T18:54:22Z")
Stop verbing nouns! Shit. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/17 "2012-03-03T19:59:26Z")
Elvin Bishop performed “Party 'till the Cows Come Home” in the early 70s, and I knew the use of the term by 1970. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/18 "2012-03-03T20:13:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Elvin Bishop performed “Party 'till the Cows Come Home” in the early 70s, and I knew the use of the term by 1970. That fits with my memory, and with other postings. I tried, but don’t remember if the term was in popular use while I was in the Navy, '64- '68. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/19 "2012-03-03T20:13:55Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Today “party” as a verb is generally synonymous with doing drugs. It’s a euphemism. When someone asks, “Do you party,” it doesn’t necessarily mean getting together with a group of people. It usually just means getting high or drunk, and maybe some other people are around. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645/20 "2012-03-03T20:16:12Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > It’s a euphemism. When someone asks, “Do you party,” it doesn’t necessarily mean getting together with a group of people. It usually just means getting high or drunk, and maybe some other people are around. I will not be a party to that! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-party-as-a-verb/614645.md?page=2)