very minor note on "lady"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I don't think this thread has mentioned the notoriously diagnostic "bag
lady."

JL

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 1:18 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: very minor note on "lady"
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
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