[Ads-l] Little Lord Fauntleroy

[Martin Schneider]

I participate in a well-known trivia competition in which a recent question
incorporated a reference to "Little Lord Fauntleroy"... in context it was
clear that the reference was mildly pejorative. The term derives from an
1886 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

My interest here lies in the idea that the term is never today used in a
non-pejorative sense.

Presumably the original Burnett work was not putting down its little
protagonist.... when did this come about? Instantaneously or did it require
generations of moderns beaten down by World War I and Watergate and ...
whatever into being unable to see Little Lord Fauntleroy as he "really" is
and always treating him as a figure of ridicule.

I remember a joke from a stand-up comedian .... "was 'whoop-de-do' EVER
used in a non-ironic sense?" that is, as a genuinely heartfelt celebration?
"Goodness lads, we won the darby! Whoop-de-do, I say, whoop-de-do!" It is
hard for us to imagine.

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