gentleman

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:34 PM -0400 10/10/07, James Harbeck wrote:
>Well, given that many children eventually learn that "please" means
>their parent is upset or impatient, I think the similar use of
>similarly polite "gentleman" to express something deprecatory is not
>as surprising as it might be. I've certainly heard "gentlemen with
>deep suntans" a few times, for instance, and I'm sure you can guess
>what that meant; I have heard various politeness forms used with
>negative connotations quite a few times, though I admit I was not
>diligent enough to keep track of what percentage of the time.

And it would be only fair, given the long history of demeaning or
pejorative uses of "lady", as documented in the feminist linguistics
literature.

LH

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