very minor note on "lady"

[Charles C Doyle]

I don't know about the regional or social-class distribution of generic "lady" (as in the oxymoronic-sounding "cleaning lady"), but I have a vivid recollection of a shameful admonition I heard (maybe overheard) when I was a child in east Texas in the 1950s:  The import was that the term "lady" could be used for adult white women but not black women, who were simply "women."

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 9:24 PM


A female acquaintance (early 60s) told me she had struck up a
conversation today with a woman at a Home Depot (Boston metro west,
in or near Sudbury) by complimenting the woman on the attractive
color of her coat.  The woman replied, "It would look good with your
hair color, lady".  (I won't swear that the whole sentence is
accurate, but I -- surprised at the use of "lady" -- I asked my
friend whether the woman had actually said "lady", and she said yes.)

Perhaps ladies in Home Depots are lower class than ma'ams in, say, Nordstroms.

Joel

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