# What is a "coed"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492 "2002-04-25T03:36:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492/21 "2002-04-26T00:01:08Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by hawthorne \*  
> To what extent is it regarded as an offensive or belittling term?

Hmm. My impression is that it’s not considered offensive (American Heritage doesn’t list it as being offensive, for instance), but it definetely has a dated feel to it. It was used more normally in the 50s-70s when female students on a campus were often a new thing. Nowadays it’s not a word that gets much use, in my experience.

An apt analogy might be using the word “colored” to refer to black people. While “colored” is not regarded as inherently offensive, anyone who regularly uses the word would be seen as being “behind the times”, so to speak.

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492/22 "2002-04-26T03:30:35Z")

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Very informative. Thanks folks.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492/23 "2002-04-26T03:50:31Z")

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First appearance in print, 1889.

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492/24 "2002-04-26T04:22:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by yabob \*  
> It’s not outdated as a term for the institution, as all-men’s or all-women’s institutions still exist. It IS outdated as a term for a female college student, dating from an era when coeducational institutions were the exception rather than the norm (my own undergraduate institution prided itself on being the first coed college in NY State - since its inception in the mid 19th century - of course, if you examined the history, you discovered that up until the 60’s they housed men and women at opposite ends of the campus).

My university actually had a co-ed dorm for a few years when it first opened. That was in the 1890s.

OK, the reason was that they hadn’t built a women’s dorm yet, so both men and women were in the men’s dorm. On different floors, I think.

Once they got the second dorm built, they reverted to monosex dorms. Also at opposite ends of the campus.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coed/105492/25 "2002-04-26T11:36:59Z")

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**ddtilque** said

> [@](#):
>
> My university actually had a co-ed dorm for a few years when it first opened. That was in the 1890s.

Wow! I always wanted to know someone who was actually around when the phrase was first used.😃

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