I've noticed that there's a phenomenon of college students using the word dormcest to refer to hookups between two people living in the same dorm (it was probably named this because many people have strong feelings against the viability of such relationships). This is not an incredibly new word: Urban Dictionary has had it listed since 2004, and the earliest reference I can find anywhere is from a 1999 anthropological book describing the social lives of young adults. There, it seemed like it was a relatively new addition even in spoken language. This is further shown through many early sources spelling it "dorm-cest", a sign that the authors were uncertain of the proper spelling and emphasized the different parts of the portmanteau to make it clear that the term was composed of dorm and incest. For some reason, Google searches of the word are most frequent in the state of Michigan.
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AUTHORHello! I'm Adam Aleksic. I have a linguistics degree from Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote my thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy traveling, trivia, philosophy, board games, conlanging, and art history.
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