Why Is It Called Prom?

The concept of prom is one deeply embedded in American culture — but high school kids haven’t always had to fret over tuxedos, corsages and “promposals.” The tradition isn’t all that old, comparatively speaking, having first emerged in the late 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written use of the word “prom” in its modern sense — as a formal dance in celebration of graduating students — appeared in a Yale college student publication from 1879. 

The etymological origins of “prom” go back a lot further. Its roots are found in the word “promenade,” which entered English in the 1560s from the French word for a public walk (which itself came from the Late Latin prominare, meaning “to drive onward,” normally in reference to the driving of animals). Over the following centuries, “promenade” accumulated several meanings in English, including a leisurely walk, a place for strolling, and an upper deck on a passenger ship (the promenade deck). In British theater circles, it was also once used to refer to standing-room only galleries at music halls that were supposedly frequented by prostitutes and their clients — “The balcony is converted into a promenade for loose women and the simpletons who run after them,” stated one article in the Observer in 1863.

The word promenade was also used in reference to the ceremony that opens a formal ball (likely stemming from the debutante balls of the 18th century). It is this latter meaning — the formal parading of guests into a ballroom at the start of a social event — that ultimately gave rise to the shortened version of promenade: Prom. During the second half of the 19th century, a college tradition emerged in the United States in which young people attended formal balls known as promenade concerts or simply proms. From here, the word “prom” entered common usage, with references to both junior and senior proms occurring from the 1870s onwards. The tradition then spread from colleges to high schools, cementing prom as a major rite of passage in American culture.