"Mistress"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Aug 24 19:20:46 UTC 2008


You say that, but think about it, Mark. A lot can be read into that
"contrary." And that "bells" could very well hide "balls." "Cock[le]"?
And a "shell" for a cock[le] could well be a "French letter." "In a
row'? Could she have been known for pulling "the train"?

After all, one never knows, do one?

-Wilson, just arsing bout


On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Mistress"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Not a noun, but a title of (possibly routine) respect, analogous to
> "Master", ancestral respectively to "Mrs." and "Mr."
>
> m a m
>
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 1:54 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> And what's up with that nursery rhyme,
>>
>> Mistress Mary
>> Quite contrary
>>
>> etc.?
>>
>> -Wilson
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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