Waitron

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:57 PM -0500 1/25/01, Jane Parker wrote:
>When I lived in Minneapolis MN in the mid-'80 the term waitron was
>commonly used
>instead of waiter/waitress in the want ads and by the waitrons themselves.
>People laughed at me (even some linguistic professors) when I went
>to gradschool
>in IN.  I have not seen or heard it used since.  Is anyone else familiar with
>this term?    I think is was sort of a gender neutral combo of waitress and
>automaton.
>
>Jane P Parker
I hadn't come across it that early, but here's a message I sent (in
reply to another message, as you'll see) concerning "waitron" as part
of a thread on another list a few years ago:

Date: Sun, 29 Sep 1996 10:32:46 -0500
Subject: waitron

>   Waitron, an American pc
>barbarism??  I thought it was a joke, with that kind of
>robotic-space-computer type sounding suffix making a wry comment on the
>job.  In any case, no one I know would say such a  thing seriously.  In
>Ohio, I've heard "server" used and in NY "waiter" for women sounds possible,
>though I can't swear I've actually heard it here.  On the other hand, 'to
>waitress' is about the only sex-related verb, as in: "Oh, I spent about a
>year waitressing before finding a job as a linguist."  As waitress
>disappears so will that verb.

Well, the first time I came across "waitron", on a Help Wanted sign posted on
the Yale cafeteria door several years ago, I mentioned it in my Words and
Meaning class and one student provided the citation "I'm tronning for Senior
Dinner".  A great verb, I thought--while 'waitressing' would work in this con-
text, that doesn't help if you're the wrong sex (or gender), and for me neither
'waitering' nor 'waiting' would, salva sensu.  Evidently, intuitions on this
differ, though.  In any case, I always thought 'waitron' was cute too; for me
it evokes both the robots others have brought up and subatomic
particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, and waitrons).  Unless the
plural is waitra...

--Larry
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