Prince Andrew

[Damien Hall]

As a Brit and a former employee of the Royal Household, it seems to me that
Gerald has come closest to a possible explanation of the various reactions to
someone calling Prince Andrew a 'tool':

"It seems to me that the same response would have come forth from, say, John
Kennedy Jr. and his bodyguards had someone in St. Louis said this to him under
these circumstances ((I realize there is no way to put this exact thought
experiment to the emp;irical test). TOOL = penis has been around in the US since

at least the 1950s, and it is pretty well-known in American slang -- well-known

enough to have made it into the latest AMERICAN HERITAGE, where it is listed
as "vulgar slang." If Andrew was "astonished," it would only be because, in
its unmarked usage, TOOL refers to some inanimate object. Calling him a "tool"
without elaboration in a formal social context violates the Maxims of Manner
and Quantity. It is about the same thing as saying, "You are our best shovel."
Since the utterance did not make sense contextually, it caused the hearers to
scan their brains for possible meanings ("tool of the capitalist conspiracy"?
"fool"? "penis"?)."

There's probably more to add by way of clarification, though.  Two things:

-  My impression is that for all ages, the use of 'tool' = 'penis' is marked as
an Americanism for us.  It certainly is for me.  I don't think it's in common
use on the other side of the pond - again, certainly in my generation it isn't.
 It's obviously common enough knowledge - though not necessarily common in use
- for the bodyguards to have seen a joke, though.  Admittedly, I'm not an
'Older One', and haven't asked any, so can't speak for *them*.

-  Royal stuff:  Regarding the 'social meaning' of calling Prince Andrew a tool,
while the Maxims probably do apply, I think that the main reason why the Prince
was 'astonished' might have been that the use of the word 'tool' implies, in a
very egalitarian way, that the Royals are available to be 'used', or at least
taken advantage of, by people, organisations etc for publicity.  What the
speaker meant was clearly that Prince Andrew's support was her organisation's
best asset in its search for public recognition, funding, or whatever.  The
word 'tool' implies that they should be able to make directed use of Royal
patronage, though, and that might have been seen as a little unfortunate.  The
Royals frown on having their name linked with organisations in such a direct
manner, because it might be seen as unfair to other organisations that are just
as worthwhile but don't have the name;  look at the uproar when the Princess
Diana Memorial Trust was set up and immediately became very, very rich because
of the high-profile name.  Since then, the Royals are wary of things like that
because of a possible perception of unfairness.

Damien
==================
halldj at babel.ling.upenn.edu