gentleman

[Jonathan Lighter]

Geoff, my impression is that - whatever they're thinking - the usage of cops on the evening news almost always comes across as bland and matter-of-fact.

  I'm now receiving a vague signal from an admittedly impaired memory cell that some time during the '70s police nationwide were encouraged always to address citizens and "Sir" or "Ma'am," particularly when they were about to arrest them.  The idea was that being respectful tends to make even some thugs a little more cooperative. Also, they're innocent till proven otherwise. The practice was also intended to help police remember that they shouldn't shove people around without a good reason.

  JL

Geoff Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Geoff Nathan
Subject: 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.
I have certainly heard the word 'gentleman' used ironically by police
officers and others to mean someone really bad--my sense is that they
are well aware of the ironic use they are making of it.

Geoff

--
Geoffrey S. Nathan
Computing and Information Technology and Department of English
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI, 48202
geoffnathan at wayne.edu
C&IT Phone (313) 577-1259
English Phone (313) 577-8621

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Building a website is a piece of cake.
Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org