"guy'' NOT ''guys''

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/16/07, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> "boy" and "man" have certainly split. when i say, "Man/Boy, am I
> tired!", i'm not using these words as vocatives; there is no
> imputation of sex to the addressee(s), nor is anything conveyed about
> the relationship between me and the addressee(s).  the words here are
> purely exclamatory, working roughly like "wow" or "gee".

Buddy Holly made the split explicit (assuming, of course, his
addressee was female):

All of my love
All of my kissin'
You don't know what you've been a-missin'
Oh boy, when you're with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you were meant for me.


--Ben Zimmer

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