gentleman

[Charles Doyle]

It's my sense that the quoted use of "gentleman" was not intended deprecatorily or ironically--just neutrally generic: 'adult male'. You know, the kind of person who uses a public restroom marked "Gentlemen," where admittance requires no social-class or moral credentials.

That's a different issue, of course, from how designations like "gentleman" and "lady" AFFECT those in whose presence the words are used.

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:49:09 -0400
>From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject: Re: gentleman
>>
>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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