“In the 1980 census, the United States Census Bureau — recognizing a societal change with numerous persons living together without being ‘officially’ married — counted not only persons who were ‘Single’ and ‘Married,’ but also ‘Persons of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters.’ The acronym is POSSLQ — and, of course, is pronounced possle-kew. It has been suggested that, although the source was stunningly unlikely, it was the Very Word that society has been looking for to describe these relationships: POSSLQ. Precise, businesslike, nonjudgmental. And, in its own way, sort of poetic, too.” Fischer v. Dallas Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 106 F.R.D. 465, 469 n.5 (N.D. Tex. 1985).
posslq
POSSLQ (pahs-[schwa]l-kyoo).abbr. A person of opposite sex sharing living quarters. • Although this term (which is used by the Census Bureau) is intended to include only a person’s roommate of the opposite sex to whom the person is not married, the phrase literally includes those who are married. This overbreadth has occasionally been criticized. See CUPOS.
