Heard on The Judges: "bartend(e)ress"

[Wilson Gray]

For me, if she serves drinks provided to her by the bartender or by
the barmaid to patrons away from the bar, whether at at tables or
standing around the walls, then she's a bar waitress, if ale and beer
are the only alcoholic beverages served; otherwise, she's a cocktail
waitress.

I have no authority to call upon except my own personal experience.
OTOH, I have no problem accepting the strong possibility that my
experience of life may be distinct from that of others.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: "bartend(e)ress"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12:41 AM -0500 1/25/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>Spoken by Judge Joe Brown:
>>
>>"Oh. She was the _bartend(e)ress_ at a bikini bar."
>>
>>
>>There are a lot of us more-mature men who are unable to get ready for
>>the replacement of "barmaid" by "bartender" and who are, therefore,
>>unconsciously forced to try to do something about it.
>>
>>-Wilson
>
> I have it on some authority that "barmaid" is sometimes taken as
> denotationally distinct from "bartender" (and hence "bartendress").
> The former may just be asked to serve drinks that the latter
> concocts; the barmaid, on this usage, does not in fact tend bar.
> Practice varies, though.
>
> LH
>
>>---
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>-Mark Twain
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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