"Miss" vs. "Ma'am"

[Jonathan Lighter]

> in regions such as New England where particular ties to England still
exist.

They gotta be kidding.

Hey, Wacki! NYC isn't in New England, either.

JL


On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 10:29 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Miss" vs. "Ma'am"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> RE: <Miss> vs. <Ma'am> as modes of direct address.  I tend to agree with
> Wikipedia s.v. Madam: <<In speaking, Madam is used in direct address when
> the lady's name is not known; . . . In the United States and in
> English-speaking Canada, "ma'am" is usually used, except in regions such as
> New England where particular ties to England still exist. Even then,
> "madam" tends to only be used when addressing the elderly, with "ma'am"
> being used for a younger woman. The male equivalent is "sir".>>
>
> In my Berkeley days 1972-4, <miss> was tabu in any mode of address. At UCLA
> 1974-84 (just down the road from Hollywood), I could only hear aging
> actresses (oops! mature female actors) addressed as Miss [stage name].
> Titles are a somewhat different kettle of fish (or can of worms, actually),
> but, the older my female classmates became, the more like their mothers
> they have become, not minding at all being called Mrs. [husband's surname,
> or some quasi-hyphenated hybrid therefrom]. The baby boomers who led the
> cultural revolution just grew up to talk like . . . we do.
>
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