very minor note on "lady"

Fri Apr 15 21:16:53 UTC 2011

1880 _Auburn [N.Y.] Evening Auburnian_  (June 28) [unp.] [
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html]:   He was informed that a lady had
called to see him in his absence. "A lady," he mused aloud,  "a lady." Upon
an accurate description, he suddenly brightened up and added, "Oh, dot vos
no lady; dot vos my wife."

The squib is attributed to the _Chicago Inter-Ocean_.  (My remote library
privileges have been suspended again for some unknown computerized reason,
so I can't look into it.) I don't know if Joe Weber (1867- 1942) was
performing at this early date. He may have been.

Evidently "lady" began its descent when people began to use it routinely as
a politely deferential term. Following generations didn't quite "get it."

Waiter: And what would the lady like?  Diner: That ain't no lady....

JL

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: very minor note on "lady"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  OED's 1846 ex., from the underground _Swell's Night Guide_ uses "lady" in
> ref. to a prostitute, but the quotation is too brief to indicate whether
> the
> usage is intended to be facetious or merely casual. (I suspect the former.)
>
> Perhaps one diagnostic tool would be the currency of the repartee, "Who was
> that lady I saw you with last night?" "That was no lady. That was my wife!"
>
> The initiating question seems to suggest that "lady" is a pretty casual
> term
> of reference, though one might insist on the possibility that it really
> means an adult female of refinement. The response seems to imply either
> that
> the female was not to be considered a refined "lady" - or it could suggest
> some kind of disconnect between the idea of a normal adult female and the
> aberrant creature called a "wife."
>
> Nevertheless, the joke strongly suggests at least one instance of "lady" as
> a trivial term for "any woman."
>
> Some early exx.:
>
> 1895 _Report of the First Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar
> Association_ (Philadelphia: Penn. Bar Assoc.) 218 [GB: note verified]:
> However, you recollect the story of the German who was in court with a
> lady,
> and the judge said to him, "Who is that lady with you?" And the Dutchman
> said, "My God, that is no lady, that is my wife!"
>
> 1914 _Middletown [N.Y.] Daily Times-Press_ (Oct. 15) 3:  All the "Who was
> that lady I seen you with?" "That was no lady, that was my wife" variants,
> we thought, had been sprung. But this happened yesterday:
>
> Business Office Attendant - Somebody called you up. I don't know if it was
> a
> lady or your wife.
>
> Editorial Department Employee - It may have been both.
>
> B.O.A. - Nope. There was only the one message.
>
> [Both senses of "lady" seem to be evident here, the casual one ( = "some
> unfamiliar woman") in the original statement, the conservative one in the
> editorial employee's reply.]
>
> 1916 _Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Session of the Iowa Bar
> Association_ (Iowa City: Ia. State Bar Assoc.) 158 [GB: not verified]: Fred
> Jordan and Lou Egan met one day and Fred says, "Who was that lady you went
> walking with?" "Pshaw, that was no lady; that was my wife." I am just an
> ordinary plug of a country newspaper man, and what do you think of me
> standing before these Supreme Judges and talking to them.
>
> 1924 Felix Isman _Weber and Fields_ (N.Y.: Boni & Liveright) [GB: not
> verified]: It was about this time, too, that they first sprang upon a
> palpitating world a gag now hoary and rheumatic but still in the ring: "Who
> is that lady I saw you with last night?" "She ain't no lady; she's my
> wife."
>
> [Weber and Fields were the best-known dialect comedians of the 1890s. The
> reference to "the Dutchman" in 1895 sugg. that the writer was thinking of a
> W & F routine. YBQ attributes the phrase to Joseph Weber in "1887," but no
> source is given.]
>
> JL
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 3:05 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: very minor note on "lady"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > A brief follow-up from current news.
> >
> > Late last night, NYT ran the story "The Lady Liberty is a Las Vegas
> > Teenager". There are several more follow-ups, including AP's, that
> > include "Lady Liberty". But the prize goes to Nick Carbone of Time
> > mag:
> >
> > > Who's That Lady? New Stamp Features Wrong Statue of Liberty
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 5:38 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > ...
> > > "The lady at the store" (any adult female) sounds absolutely
> unremarkable
> > to
> > > me except that, personally, I'd still say "woman."
> > > ...
> >
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